Regulation 12(6A) of the Building Regulations 2010 sets out the notifiable categories for England, and the list is shorter than most homeowners expect. Notification is required where the work consists of installing a new circuit, replacing a consumer unit, or making any addition or alteration to existing circuits in a special location.
That is the whole list. Everything else is non-notifiable.
What a special location is
The definition in regulation 12(9) is precise, and it is narrower than the zones used in the wiring regulations. It is not defined by reference to them.
A special location is the space surrounding a bath tap or shower head within a room containing a bath or shower, extending vertically from finished floor level to 2.25 metres, or to the shower head position where that is higher. Horizontally it extends 0.6 metres from the edge of a bath tub or shower tray, or 1.2 metres from the centre point of a shower head where there is no tray. It is also a room containing a swimming pool or a sauna heater.
Three consequences follow, and each of them contradicts something you will read elsewhere.
The whole bathroom is not a special location. Only that defined volume around the bath or shower is. Adding a socket to an existing circuit at the far end of a large bathroom, outside the volume, is not notifiable work.
For a swimming pool or sauna, the entire room is special. There is no measured volume to argue about.
Kitchens are not special locations in England. They were before the 2013 edition of Approved Document P took effect, and they still are in Wales, which has its own Approved Document. A page telling you that rewiring a kitchen is automatically notifiable in England is working from a version of the rules that was superseded in April 2013. Installing a new circuit for a cooker or a kitchen ring is notifiable in its own right, though, which is where the confusion is probably rooted.
What is not notifiable
Approved Document P lists the non-notifiable work explicitly. Adding a socket outlet, a fused spur or a lighting point to an existing circuit, provided it is not in a special location. Replacing a light fitting, socket or switch. Like-for-like replacement of a damaged accessory or cable. Repairs and maintenance work anywhere, including inside a bathroom special location.
That last point is the one people find surprising. Repair inside the special volume is not notifiable; alteration or addition inside it is. The distinction is between restoring what was there and changing it.
Not notifiable does not mean not regulated
This is where most consumer content goes wrong, so it is worth stating flatly.
Approved Document P states that all electrical installation work carried out in a dwelling is subject to requirement P1 and should comply with the design and installation guidance in the document. It goes on to say that non-notifiable work should be designed, installed, inspected, tested and certificated in accordance with BS 7671, and that local authorities can take enforcement action if non-notifiable work is found to be unsafe.
Notifiability governs paperwork. It does not create a zone of lower safety obligation. A socket added to an existing circuit needs the same competence and the same testing as one on a new circuit, and it should come with a Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate. The difference is that nobody has to tell the council about it.
How notification works in practice
For notifiable work, a registered electrician self-certifies compliance, the scheme operator issues the Building Regulations Compliance Certificate, and the scheme notifies your local authority at the same time. That is the ordinary route and it costs you nothing extra.
If the electrician is not registered, or if you are doing the work yourself, the work has to be notified to building control before it starts, by giving a building notice or depositing full plans, with a fee and an inspection. There is also a third-party certification route, where a registered certifier is appointed before work begins and inspects work carried out by someone unregistered.
Why the paperwork matters more than it used to
A section 36 enforcement notice can now be served up to ten years after completion of the work, having been twelve months before April 2023. It is served on the owner of the property, not necessarily on whoever did the work.
Ten years overlaps a typical period of ownership. That is why unnotified electrical work now turns up as a live question during a sale rather than expiring quietly, and it is why the certificates are worth filing somewhere you will find them again.
The technical standard behind all of this
BS 7671 is a British Standard rather than legislation, and its force is indirect: Approved Document P makes it the recognised way of demonstrating compliance with P1. The current version is BS 7671:2018+A4:2026, published on 15 April 2026, with the preceding version withdrawn on 15 October 2026.
The Approved Document itself still cites a much older version of the standard in its appendix, which is a quirk worth knowing about but not one that changes anything in practice. Compliance is assessed against the current standard.
Knowing which category your job falls into is half the conversation.