The Gas Safe Register is the UK’s only governing body of gas businesses and engineers, and replaced CORGI in Great Britain and the Isle of Man in April 2009 and Northern Ireland and Guernsey the following year.
By law, a business or individual must be on the Gas Safe Register in order to work on residential, commercial or industrial gas appliances and applications. Yet the Gas Safe Register’s investigation team’s latest research has found that a third of UK adults do not check whether their chosen engineer is on the Gas Safe Register.
Research was conducted with Opinium Matters of more than 2,000 adults between 15 and 18 April 2019.
These findings have been released as the government’s official gas body comes close to completing 2,000 illegal gas work investigations in just three years. Over two thirds of these cases were deemed to be unsafe, leaving homeowners and their dependents in potential danger due to faulty gas work.
Even some of those who did believe that had verified that their engineer is on the Gas Safe Register looked for confirmation in the wrong place. 28% of respondents saw logos on uniforms or the gas engineer’s website, whilst 13% asked the engineer. Only 28% checked with the Gas Safe Register direct.
Research has shown that there is a general lack of understanding about how important checking that an engineer is on the Gas Safe Register. 40% assumed that all gas engineers are registered, which meant that 29% didn’t have a clue that they should check in the first place. 15% blamed lack of time when not checking for registration information, whilst 18% simply forgot. 14% were too polite or embarrassed to ask! Hardly surprising – after all, we are British! - but is that really a good reason to put your life on the line?
CEO of Gas Safe Register, Jonathan Samuel, commented: “ Anyone working on gas appliances who is not on the Gas Safe Register is doing so illegally. Gas appliances can be dangerous if they’re not looked after, so it’s important to ensure they are serviced or fixed by someone who is legally registered and qualified to do so. You can look up your gas engineer’s registration number on the Gas Safe Register website, or call our helpline.”
8% wasted money as the gas work had to be re-checked afterwards by registered engineer. In 12% of these cases, work had to be re-done. Only 6% contacted the governing body to inform them of the engineer operating illegally.
Make sure you check that your chosen engineer is on the Gas Safe Register when having any work done in your home or business. You can find legally operating engineers on the Gas Safe Register’s websiteor by calling the governing body on 0800 408 5500.
Are you concerned that gas work already carried out in your home was done illegally? Contact Gas Safe Register as soon as possible. Ideally they will require any paperwork you may have such as contact details, invoices and receipts, as well as photographs of the work done – this will help the investigations team build a strong case.
Carbon monoxide poisoning can be deadly. Symptoms of CO poisoning include:
- Headache
- Nausea
- Breathlessness
- Dizziness
- Loss of consciousness
Think you can smell gas? Don’t take the risk – contact the free national gas emergency number 24/7 on 0800 111 999.
To ensure that your chosen engineer is on the Gas Safe Register, call 0800 408 5500 or visit Gas Safe Register’s‘ Find an Engineer’ page on the website.
We hope you found our article ‘Are you sure that your engineer is on the Gas Safe Register?’ informative. Please do not hesitate to contact Gas Training & Assessment if you are considering a career move into the gas industry.
