The Public Service Vehicles (Conditions of Fitness, Equipment, Use and Certification) Regulations 1981

Electrical equipment

17.—(1) All electrical apparatus and circuits in a vehicle shall be so constructed and installed as to guard adequately against the risk of electric shock or the outbreak of fire.

(2) Subject to paragraph 5 of Schedule 2, where the voltage exceeds 100 volts in one or more electrical circuits in a vehicle, a manually operated isolating switch which is capable of disconnecting all such circuits from the main electrical supply shall be connected in each pole of that supply which is not electrically connected to earth, and shall be located inside the vehicle in a position readily accessible to the driver or conductor:

Provided that no such isolating switch shall be capable of disconnecting any electrical circuit supplying the lamps carried for the purposes of section 68 of the Road Traffic Act 1972 (which provides for lights to be carried by vehicles during the hours of darkness).

(3) In this Regulation any reference to an electrical circuit is a reference to an electrical circuit not being a high tension ignition circuit or a circuit within a unit of equipment.