PAT testing cost — and what the law actually requires
PAT testing costs roughly £1 to £3 per item, plus a minimum site fee of about £40 to £80 that usually dominates the bill for a small office. Before you book anything, though, there is a more useful question than the price, and most pages selling PAT will not answer it: how much of this do you actually have to do? Less than you have probably been told.
So what do you actually owe?
A duty to maintain, not a duty to test. The law asks you to keep equipment that could injure someone in a safe condition, and leaves the method and the frequency to a risk assessment. That produces three tiers of activity, of which only the third costs you money per item:
| Level | Who does it | Covers | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| User check | Whoever uses the equipment | Damaged flex, cracked plug, scorch marks, taped-up repairs | Nothing |
| Formal visual inspection | A competent person in-house | The above, plus opening the plug top on rewireable plugs, checking fuse rating | Staff time |
| Combined inspection and test (PAT) | A tester with instruments | Earth continuity, insulation resistance — the faults you cannot see | £1–£3 per item + minimum fee |
The HSE's position is that a great deal of low-risk equipment is adequately covered by the first two levels. The faults PAT is uniquely good at finding — a broken earth inside a Class I appliance, degraded insulation — are the ones that matter on equipment that moves, gets knocked about, or is used outdoors or on a building site. They matter much less on a monitor that has sat on the same desk for four years.
What PAT testing costs in 2026
Rates published by UK testers, checked September 2026. The per-item rate falls as the count rises, which is why a 300-item factory pays less per appliance than a 20-item office:
| Item type | Published rate per item |
|---|---|
| Class I equipment (earthed — kettles, toasters, most power tools) | £1.50–£3.00 |
| Class II equipment (double-insulated — many chargers, some tools) | £1.00–£2.50 |
| IT and office equipment | £1.00–£2.00 |
| Extension leads and detachable cables | £1.00–£1.50 |
| Minimum site / call-out fee | £40–£80 (£50–£150 London & South East) |
Where PAT is genuinely worth doing
Risk drives the interval, so the honest version of this page is a list of where the risk is real:
- Construction and site tools — moved, dropped, dragged by the flex, often outdoors. The highest-risk category by a distance.
- Hire equipment — goes out to unknown users and comes back in unknown condition, every time.
- Commercial kitchens — heat, steam, cleaning water and heavy Class I appliances.
- Workshops and garages — abrasive dust, oil, and equipment that vibrates.
- Public-facing equipment — anything a member of the public, a pupil or a resident can plug in or unplug.
- Anything used outdoors — see outdoor and outbuilding electrics for the fixed-wiring side of the same problem.
And where it is usually over-specified: a dry, low-traffic office of desktop IT on fixed installations. The HSE's own wording covers that case directly.
PAT is not an EICR — and only one of them is statutory
This is the confusion that costs people real money, usually in the wrong direction. They buy annual PAT and skip the inspection the law actually names.
| PAT | EICR | |
|---|---|---|
| Covers | Appliances that plug in | The fixed installation — board, circuits, wiring, sockets |
| Legal status | A method of meeting a general duty to maintain | Named duty for landlords: at least every 5 years |
| Labels / records | Not legally required | The report is the deliverable, and must be supplied to tenants |
| Penalty for non-compliance | General health-and-safety enforcement | Up to £40,000 for a landlord in England |
If you are a landlord, the document you are required to hold is an EICR, not a PAT certificate — and the maximum penalty there rose to £40,000 on 1 May 2026. If you run commercial premises, the fixed-installation interval is set by the installation and its use rather than a flat five years: see commercial electrical work.
Buying it well
- Count your items by class first. A quote per item means nothing until you know how many Class I items you have.
- Ask what the minimum fee is and at what item count it stops applying.
- Ask what happens to a failed item. Is a plug top or fuse replacement included, or is it quoted?
- Refuse an annual contract by default. Ask the tester to justify the interval per equipment type; that is what the regulator expects anyway.
- Get the fixed installation checked separately. A perfect set of PAT records does nothing for a C2 on a socket circuit — see condition report costs.
Get PAT testing quotes
Tell us roughly how many items you have and what kind of premises it is. If the honest answer is that you need less testing than you were quoted for, that is what you will hear back.
What we will not do: we do not sell your details on, we do not add you to a marketing list, and we do not require a phone number. If you would rather not be called, leave the phone out — email is enough.