New app aims to 'revolutionise gas safety in the UK'

Great news for Gas Safe Registered engineers – Gas Tag has recently launched a free app compatible with iOS and Android devices that will save you the countless hours you currently spend filling out LGSRs and protect the general public from the dangers of unregistered installers.

With the slogan 'Gas Safety for the 21 st Century', the Gas Tag system has been designed alongside Gas Safe Registered engineers, industry specialists and user experience experts to create the UK's first real time gas safety monitoring system – a system that is set to transform traditional methods of gas safety compliance.

The Gas Tag System will be launched to homeowners, private landlords and housing associations in the next few weeks, and in the coming months, Gas Safe Registered engineers will be able to use it to procure work.

Gas Tag is free to download for all Gas Safe Registered engineers and can be used when working in any property with a Gas Tag subscription. It has an engineer verification feature, which prevents non-registered fitters from recording work through the system. This means that only qualified and registered engineers can use the app, reducing the risk of illegal, dangerous gas work being carried out. This, in turn, creates more work for qualified Gas Safe Registered engineers.

According to its programmers, Gas Tag boasts 'a user-friendly interface' which 'guides users through data fields'. All form work is pre-completed, improving engineers' efficiency and significantly reducing the amount of time normally spent trawling through reams of repetitive paperwork.

Users are also able to access previous work carried out at Gas Tag properties, proving that the property is gas compliant, informing you of past issues that have been rectified and notifying you of any houses that are approaching their service due dates.

In addition, Gas Tag replaces the current method of locally stored records with a database of time-stamped, geo-tagged, photo-verified evidence of all gas work carried out. Engineers simply sign in by touching their mobile device against the property's Gas Tag and all information completed via the app is instantly uploaded to a centralised portal. Housing associations, landlords and homeowners can then view this data through a dashboard in real time.

Here at Gas Training & Assessment, we know all too well how much paperwork needs to be filled in after every job, and what an onerous task it can be. Anything that cuts down on time without compromising standards of gas safety compliance, prevents illegal fitters from putting the general public at risk and creates more work for registered engineers sounds like a positive!

Whether the Gas Tag system becomes the new method of gas safety compliance remains to be seen but so far, it seems to be proving popular. The company has formed partnerships with some of the UK's largest housing associations and private landlords (collectively they own or manage 1.5 million properties) and we'll certainly be recommending that our customers try out the app for themselves.

You can download the Gas Tag app via iTunes or Google Play . For further information about the system and how it works, visit www.gastag.co.uk .