Gas Safe Register

1 What the law says

Regulation 3 of the 1998 regulations, for England, Wales and Scotland, requires competence for gas work and membership of an HSE-approved class for firms and sole traders.³ Falsely claiming to belong is an offence.³ Gas Safe registration is how that class works in practice. Regulations made for Northern Ireland in 2004 use matching wording.⁵ A 2021 Isle of Man Order applied the UK regulations there from 15 February 2022, and unregistered work on domestic gas appliances is illegal on the island.²

For what a homeowner may and may not touch, see who may work on a boiler.

2 Checking an engineer

1. Ask to see the ID card. HSE says competencies are on the back.¹
2. Check the competencies match the job, because registration alone doesn't cover every kind of work. HSE says the engineer must be competent in that area of work.¹
3. Check the entry on the register's website or by its helpline, as HSE advises.¹
4. Keep the registration number. Ideal's guide says the ID card details and number should be recorded on the Benchmark checklist.⁶

3 What registration also means

Gas Safe is "not technically a competent person scheme", GOV.UK says, but in practice its installers have the same building regulations responsibilities.⁷ So a registered installer can usually handle the building rules notice for a new boiler in England. Landlords must use an approved-class engineer for the annual gas safety check.¹

4 What it doesn't cover

The register is about gas. In Northern Ireland, nidirect sends oil boiler installation and repair to OFTEC registered technicians.⁴ For LPG, ask the engineer about that competency on the card.

5 Sources for this entry

The register's own website couldn't be read when this entry was compiled, so its details here come through HSE, nidirect and the Isle of Man Government, not the register itself. Check the register's site for its current process.