Amendment 4 - What's Changed & What to Do

Amendment 4 was published on 15 April 2026. It is the biggest update to BS 7671 since the 18th Edition came in, and the trade calls it the Orange Book. Amendment 4 adds two entirely new chapters, two new sections, and reworks several existing ones. Amendment 3 (2024) has now been folded into the main document too, so the Orange Book is one consolidated book - no separate PDF to keep alongside it.

The previous edition, the Brown Book, stays valid until 15 October 2026. After that, every new certificate has to reference Amendment 4.

This is what’s in the Orange Book, and what you need to do before October.

Two New Chapters

Two areas have been brought into BS 7671 for the first time.

Chapter 57 - Stationary Secondary Batteries

Battery storage is everywhere now. Domestic systems paired with solar. Commercial backup. Larger battery installations on industrial sites. Until now, BS 7671 didn’t have a dedicated chapter for it.

Chapter 57 provides guidance on stationary secondary battery systems. If you’ve been doing this work, you’ve been steering without a map. Now there is one.

Chapter 81 - Energy Efficiency

This is a shift in direction for BS 7671. The regulations have always been about safety. Now they are starting to address energy performance too.

Chapter 81 is a framework rather than detailed requirements, but it signals where future editions are going. Energy efficiency is becoming part of the electrical installation conversation.

More detail on both chapters in Amendment 4 Introduces Two New Chapters.

Two New Sections

Section 545 - Earthing for ICT Systems

If you’ve worked on server rooms, data centres or network installations, you know the headaches around functional earthing versus protective earthing. Different guidance documents saying different things.

Section 545 addresses broadcast, communication and computer network systems, with clear distinctions between functional and protective earthing.

Section 716 - Power over Ethernet

PoE has been creeping into everything. Security cameras, access control, building automation, wireless access points. BS 7671 now addresses distributing extra-low voltage DC power through data cables.

For contractors doing office fit-outs and smart building work, this section fills a gap that has been open for years.

More detail on both sections is in Amendment 4 Adds Two New Sections for ICT and Data Work.

Other Changes

Plenty of existing material has been revised, and a few new arrivals are worth knowing about.

Section 710 - Medical Locations

Section 710 had a major revision, plus a new schedule of test results for recording the resistance of supplementary protective equipotential bonding conductors. If you work in healthcare, dental or veterinary premises, the testing and recording side of the job has changed.

EV Charging - RDC Protective Devices

Amendment 4 introduces requirements for residual direct current detection devices in EV charging installations. EV chargers can produce DC residual currents that conventional RCDs won’t pick up, and the regulations now address how to protect against them. For anyone doing EV chargepoint work - and that’s most contractors at this point - the protective device side of these installs has tightened.

PNB Earthing Systems

For the first time, BS 7671 covers PNB earthing systems. Contractors working on PNB arrangements now have explicit guidance in the standard. Before, they had to interpret around the gap.

AFDDs

Amendment 4 expands the guidance on where Arc Fault Detection Devices should be installed. AFDDs have been gaining ground across recent amendments. Amendment 4 takes that further.

Smaller Items Worth Knowing

• Firefighter’s switches - revised guidance for emergency disconnection.
• EICR notes - rewritten, with new phrasing and tighter formatting.
• Cables in walls - installation methods reorganised into a single table.
• Signatures - the engineer who did the inspection and the person who authorised the report both need to sign EICs, EICRs and Minor Works. Two roles, two signatures.
• Buried cable duct voltage drop data - new figures added to the appendices.

For a fuller walkthrough of what’s changed on the certificates themselves, see How Amendment 4 Affects Your Certificates.

What Stays the Same

Amendment 4 is a substantial update but it doesn’t rewrite the foundations. Maximum Zs tables, disconnection times and cable current capacities haven’t moved. If you do standard domestic work without batteries, PoE or medical locations, your day-to-day numbers are largely unchanged. You still need the Orange Book, but the core practice you know carries forward.

The Transition Window

Amendment 4 published on 15 April 2026. The Brown Book is withdrawn on 15 October 2026. The six months in between is the transition period.

During the window, you can certify work to either edition. The rule is consistency within a project. One edition per job, start to finish. You can’t design to one and certify to the other.

After 15 October, Amendment 4 becomes the only current edition. Every new certificate from then on has to reference it.

The simpler approach for most firms is to switch the whole company over before October. Finish jobs already designed to the Brown Book under the Brown Book. Put everything new onto Amendment 4 from a set date. One edition in use across the team, nothing to track between jobs.

What You Need to Do

A short action list:

• Get a copy of the Orange Book. Scheme providers will expect you to have it by October.
• Pick a switchover date. Earlier is easier than later. Tell the team and stick to it.
• Check anything currently in design. Decide which edition each project is being completed to, and stay consistent within that project.
• Update your software. Your certification tools need to be on Amendment 4 before your switchover date. If they aren’t ready, your team can’t be either.
• Brief the QS. They are the one who has to spot any drift across the team during the transition.

How Shine Forms Handles Amendment 4

The regulation checks in Shine Forms come from BS 7671 verified directly against BS 7671 by someone who helps write it. When Amendment 4 changed a value or a check, the software changed with it.

Switch a job to Amendment 4 and the regulation checks switch with it. No old Brown Book figures slipping through. Every engineer applies the same edition the same way.

For more on how that works under the hood, read What We Mean By “Regulation Intelligence” (And Why It’s Not AI).