PAT Test Certificates and Stickers: What a Good Record Shows
Updated: Oct 9
There is no official PAT test certificate form, and the HSE says there is no legal requirement to keep one at all. What you should get after a visit is a written record of which appliances were inspected and tested, on what date, by whom, and whether each one passed or failed. That record is still the single most useful thing a PAT visit leaves behind, because it is how you prove your equipment is being maintained.
Is a PAT certificate a legal document?
Not in the way a gas safety certificate is. The HSE says there is no legal requirement to label equipment that has been inspected or tested, and no requirement to keep records. The legal duty, under the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989, is to maintain equipment so it does not cause danger.
HSE's guidance on the regulations adds that records can help demonstrate compliance, and that without effective monitoring a dutyholder cannot be certain the maintenance duty has been met. So the certificate is not the law. It is your evidence that you followed it. Our post on whether PAT testing is a legal requirement covers the duty itself.
The one exception worth knowing is social housing in England. Since the 2025 amendment to the electrical safety regulations, social landlords must have equipment they supply checked at least every 5 years, obtain a record of each check (the regulations call it an ISIT record) showing the result and the next check date, keep it, and give copies to tenants. For them, the record is a legal requirement.
What should a PAT certificate show?
"Certificate" usually means a summary sheet plus an itemised register. A useful one lets someone who was not there understand exactly what was done. Look for:
The site details: your business name, the address, and the area or room where each item was found.
An asset number for every item: matching a number on the item's label, so the record and the equipment can be tied together.
A description: "kettle, kitchen, first floor" rather than "kettle".
The class of equipment: Class I (earthed) or Class II (double insulated), because they are tested differently.
The visual inspection result: including anything found, such as a wrong fuse or damaged flex.
The test results: the readings for each test carried out, not just a tick.
Pass or fail for each item: with a reason for every failure and what happened to it (repaired and retested, or removed).
The date, the tester's name and the instrument used.
That last point sounds fussy, but HSE guidance notes that readings can differ between instruments, so recording which one was used helps anyone comparing results over time.
When we carry out PAT testing in Wolverhampton, Telford and across Shropshire, every label should have a matching line in the register, because a sticker without a record behind it proves very little.
PAT testing stickers: pass, fail and what they should say
A pass sticker tells users the item was checked and passed, and when. A fail sticker (often red and marked "do not use") tells them to leave it alone until it is repaired or removed. HSE guidance suggests defective equipment is labelled as faulty and taken out of use so nobody plugs it back in.
A good pass label shows the date of the test, the asset number and who tested it. Many labels also carry a printed "retest date". Be careful with that. HSE's guidance on maintaining portable equipment says that if a label is used, it should not show a next test due date, because the tester is not the right person to decide it. The interval is for you, the dutyholder, to set based on the risk, the type of equipment and how it is used.
In practice that means the retest date should come from your own schedule, not from whatever the tester wrote on the sticker. If a tester sets every item to "12 months" by default, you may be paying for more testing than your low risk items need.
How long should you keep PAT records?
There is no fixed legal period. HSE's guidance on the Electricity at Work Regulations says maintenance records, including test results, are best kept throughout the working life of the electrical system.
For portable equipment, a practical rule is to keep every record until the item has been disposed of, so you can see its whole history. Keep the previous two or three registers side by side as well. Comparing them shows whether failures are rising in one area, and that trend is what lets you lengthen or shorten intervals with confidence.
Store a digital copy. Paper certificates in a drawer tend to vanish the day someone asks for them.
What an inspector, insurer or landlord may ask for
If an HSE inspector, an environmental health officer, an insurer or a landlord asks how you maintain your electrical equipment, they are usually looking for three things:
A system: user checks, visual inspections and testing at intervals you can explain.
Evidence it is happening: dated records with results, not just stickers on plugs.
Follow-up on failures: proof that failed items were repaired and retested, or taken out of use.
A certificate that only says "142 items tested, all passed", with no register behind it, answers none of those well. Nor does a register that lists items nobody can find.
If your existing records are thin, or you inherited a building full of stickers with no register behind them, talk to us about a fresh baseline visit as part of your wider electrical maintenance.
PAT certificate questions, answered
Does a PAT certificate expire?
No. It records the items on the day of the test, and the interval to the next one is set out in how long a PAT test lasts.
Can I get a PAT certificate for a single appliance?
Yes. The record is just a register with one line. That suits a landlord with only a few appliances, or a trader taking equipment to a venue that asks for proof it has been tested.
Why did my quote charge extra for certificates?
Some testers price the record separately from the testing. Checking what is included is one of the easiest ways to compare PAT testing costs fairly.
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