I've come across a fair number of commercial site sparks who openly admit they "don't really do domestic". When it comes to the do's and don'ts of Building Regs they are sometimes a bit clueless. More a case of them getting a good guide to the building regs than reading Part P I think.
I did a thread a while ago bordering on what OnOff has raised here.
Over the years I've found that the self employed sparks and sparks who work for small firms are far more knowledgable and adaptable than sparks working for the giants of the industry. In general .
And I think with the advent of Phart Pwew focusing minds , the gap will be greater.
In the previous thread I'd come across sparks working for a big contractor at a certain chocolate factory....they were brilliant at wacking in miles of 12" X 3" segregated trunking , all brackets , threaded rods & setting ...leave you standing . But I found they were'nt thinkers, planners , problem solvers , they were told what to do each day .
I think if you took them out of their comfort zone , put them with a small firm, sent them out in the van on their own to various jobs , they would come up sadly lacking I'm afraid .
I can say this because I once went on loan & worked with them at the above , and later when things had changed, we employed some of these type guys . You soon realises that it was no good sending them out alone to start a job, or do a small job somewhere....... they were only happy (& useful)
hanging tray , trunkning , miles of steel conduit .
Useless at phoning in , just run out of material because you were not backing them up every day .
Anything where you just need a spark to go out & sort it ...we learned to send our regular guys.
I also made the point that when I went on loan to this large firm ......... the two of us were as welcome as two pharts in a spacesuit by the ignorant barstewards ...........so much for the Comrades of the Brotherhood ...........ETU ?..........Extreme Tossers United more like .
:run 
