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Shortcut To Understanding The New Gas Safe Register

New Capita gas registration scheme now in force

Some time back we put out a news story which identified changes to the gas register scheme run by CORGI.
We received a number of enquiries regarding this, so we asked our senior consultant Louise Mingay to put together a short paper on the main issues that keep coming up from our clients.


When does the new scheme start?

The New Gas Safe Register came into play from the 1st April 2009. The details have led to some confusion, and surprisingly there has been little in the way of a media campaign.


When was all this decided?

Last year, HSE announced changes to the gas installer registration scheme in Great Britain. The scheme currently operated by CORGI was replaced on 1 April 2009 by the new Gas Safe Register™ (operated by Capita).


What will the new scheme do?

The Gas Safe Register is now the ONLY gas installer registration scheme approved by HSE from 1 April under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998. All gas installers wanting to undertake domestic and certain other gas work in Great Britain from 1 April will need to be registered with this scheme in order to be able lawfully to carry out any work on gas fittings, which includes gas appliances. Gas Safe Register will maintain an up-to-date register of gas installers who are qualified to install or repair gas fittings and appliances. It will have systems in place to check the competence of gas installers, inspect their work and to deal with complaints about unsafe gas work. The operation of the Gas Safe Register will be overseen by HSE as the regulator with responsibility for gas safety. In the context of domestic gas safety this means that from 1 April, in order to ensure that gas installers are lawfully able to carry out the gas work, domestic users of gas should ask for a Gas Safe Registered Engineer and not any other. The CORGI register will no longer count for those purposes.


What happens to all those firms who were CORGI registered?

The Gas Safe Register opened on Monday 19th January for currently registered gas installers to register in advance with new scheme by telephone or through the website: http://www.gassaferegister.co.uk


I act as landlord for a number of premises, am I affected by the changes?

Landlords are legally responsible for the safety of tenants. So, to make sure any property is safe, all appliances must have a safety check carried out every 12 months by a Gas Safe registered engineer.
All existing gas safety records issued by Corgi registered gas engineers will be valid until their expiry date as long as issued before the 1st April 2009. Any gas safety record provided after 1st April 2009 will only be valid if the engineer is registered with Gas Safe Register.

All installers who are currently carrying out gas work should be registered now and will need to continue to be registered in the future.

The scope of registration will not change and will still require installers working on domestic, non-domestic, commercial, natural gas and liquid petroleum gas installations to be registered.


How are landlords’ gas safety certificates (CP12s) affected?

The CP12 Certificate will still be valid and is not affected. The landlord’s pads and certificates are currently available from various suppliers and can continue to use these pads.
In the commercial sector, failure to check that an installer is registered under the Gas Safe Scheme™ may mean a breach of the Building Regulations and Regulation 3 of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998.


What action must I take?

If you intend to have gas work done or if your maintenance and certification was previously carried out by CORGI registered companies, you should now carry out a check to ensure that your contractor is part of the new scheme.
Louise Mingay is a senior consultant with Ark Workplace Risk Ltd.


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