Alan's Heating - Gas Regulations
Who may or may not install, repair and service gas equipment is regulated in the UK to ensure the safety that only quality workmanship, correct tools, equipment and parts, and thorough understanding of the principles and systems can bring.These regulations (ISBN 0 11 079655 1) are a United Kingdom Statutory Instrument regulating various activities relating to the safety of installations and appliances using Natural gas and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).The regulations cover various aspects of the supply and use of gas, and qualifications and duties of people invoved with doing so. Provisions of the regulations with which the public is most familiar are:
- the duties of landlords to ensure the safety of gas installations and appliances in rented accommodation, attested by a Landlord's Gas Safety Certificate which must be obtained at least annually and a copy given to tenants.
- the qualifications required of people working on gas installations and appliances.
The latter requirement is often misunderstood to mean that only Gas Safe-registered installers are allowed to do such work, whereas the Regulations actually state "No person shall carry out any work in relation to a gas fitting or gas storage vessel unless he is competent to do so" adding that employees and self-employed people must be "a member of a class of persons approved for the time being by the Health and Safety Executive", which up to the 31st of March 2009 was CORGI and since the 1st of April 2009 is The Gas Safe Register. Thus the requirement on those not doing such work as [self-]employees is simply that they must be "competent", a term which is not defined in the regulations. (This is sometimes misinterpreted as permitting non-Gas Safe-registered employees or the self-employed to do gas work for others provided they do not demand remuneration for the work.)
So beware people offering to do you "favours", only trust licenced practitioners like Alan's Heating.