Every electrical scheme publishes a searchable register, and the check takes a couple of minutes. A logo on a van, a website footer or a leaflet is a graphic and proves nothing on its own.
Where to search
The register at electricalcompetentperson.co.uk is the one to start with. Government guidance describes it as the electrical competent person register designed to provide a single place for householders to find registered electricians in their area, and it aggregates the authorised schemes rather than favouring one.
That aggregation is the practical advantage, because the brands in this sector keep consolidating. ELECSA was retired as a brand by Certsure, with registrations transferring to NICEIC from 26 April 2021 and completing in November 2022, and elecsa.co.uk now redirects to niceic.com. STROMA closed its installer certification and merged it into NAPIT on 2 August 2021, and no longer operates as an electrical competent person scheme.
That consolidation is exactly why checking the single register at electricalcompetentperson.co.uk beats trusting a logo: the register follows the registration through a brand change, and a badge on a van does not. An electrician still advertising "ELECSA registered" is quoting a brand that no longer exists. That is not necessarily a red flag, since the registration itself will have moved to NICEIC, but it is worth asking about and worth confirming on the register under the company name on the quote.
The individual searches are also live and useful for confirming details: niceic.com/find-a-tradesperson, search.napit.org.uk, and the Electrical Safety First directory at electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk/find-an-electrician.
Search the legal entity, not the trading name
Search by the exact company name that appears on the quote and the invoice, not the name painted on the van. The two differ more often than you would expect.
A firm that appears on a register under a different legal entity is worth a question before it is worth a contract, because the registration and the insurance both attach to whichever entity is named. If the quote comes from a limited company and the registration is in a sole trader's name, you are contracting with something that is not the registered party.
The scheme brand is not the operator
Government authorises scheme operators rather than the consumer-facing brands they trade under. NICEIC is a brand of Certsure LLP, which is why searching the government list for NICEIC finds nothing while Certsure appears.
For domestic electrical work in dwellings, Certsure and NAPIT are the operators a homeowner will meet in practice. BESCA, Blue Flame Certification and OFTEC are authorised for that same dwellings category, so the distinction is one of practical coverage rather than of what each is permitted to certify.
Registration has a scope, and the scope matters
This is the check almost nobody makes, and it is the one that decides whether the registration covers your job.
"NICEIC registered" is not a single credential. The Approved Contractor tier covers commercial, industrial and domestic work to BS 7671 and includes installation condition reporting. The Domestic Installer tier covers domestic notifiable work only. Both require a qualified supervisor with at least two years of responsibility, current BS 7671, a documented safe isolation procedure, calibrated test instruments, six-year record retention and a written health and safety policy.
The difference that reaches a homeowner is concrete. The Approved Contractor tier requires £2m of public liability cover plus £250,000 of professional indemnity where periodic inspection is carried out. The Domestic Installer tier requires the £2m public liability and carries no professional indemnity requirement at all. It is also not the tier scoped for condition reports.
Professional indemnity is the cover that responds when advice or a report turns out to be wrong, as opposed to when something is physically damaged. On a condition report, which is entirely a professional opinion about the state of an installation, that distinction is the whole point.
NAPIT structures the same idea differently, as work-type scopes on a single membership rather than prestige tiers. Its member search exposes electrician, electrical inspector and electrical certifier as separate flags, which is a useful piece of consumer-facing proof that the scopes differ. Separate scopes also exist for EV chargepoints, fire detection, emergency lighting and renewables.
So the question to ask is whether they are registered for the work you want, rather than whether they are registered at all. An electrician correctly registered for domestic notifiable work may not be scoped for the condition report you also asked about.
What the register does not tell you
It confirms scheme membership and scope. It does not tell you whether the work will be tidy, whether the electrician turns up, or whether the price is fair.
Insurance deserves its own check. Certificates are trivially forged, so ask for the policy schedule or for the broker to email confirmation directly, check the insurer is authorised on the Financial Services Register, check the named party matches the company on your quote, and check the dates span your whole project.
References are worth asking for as addresses rather than testimonials, and ideally for work of the same kind in the same sort of property. A rewire in a Victorian terrace two winters ago tells you more than a socket fitted last week.
When to do it
Before you accept a quote, not after the plaster is off. Registration, insurance and scope are all checkable in an evening, and every one of them becomes harder to raise once someone is on site.
Checking a registration takes about two minutes on a public register, and it is the one check on this page that gives a definite answer rather than an impression.