From 1 April only Gas Safe registered engineers should be employed to carry out work on gas installations or appliances – CORGI gas registration will not be valid. Engineers currently verified under the CORGI scheme are now registering with Gas Safe Register so they can continue to work legally from April 1st.
Finding a Gas Safe registered engineer will be simple. From 1st April, you’ll be able to find an engineer online – at www.GasSafeRegister.co.uk – or by calling 0800 408 5500. Registered engineers will be identified with the new yellow Gas Safe Register logo, and every engineer will carry a Gas Safe Register ID card with their own unique licence number.
Phil Ridgeway of Ridgway Gas Services Ltd., was the first gas engineer on the Island to register on the new Gas Safe Register. He was originally apprenticed to British Gas, and now, 25 years on he’s qualified to carry out every different type of domestic and commercial gas installation: from cookers and gas fires, to boats and camper vans, to large commercial and industrial plant rooms. He told isleofman.com, ‘The change to the Gas Safe Register has given gas engineers the chance to remind people that any gas appliances ought to be installed by someone who is properly qualified. The main dangers are from gas explosions and carbon monoxide poisoning – both of which are potentially killers – which is why the Gas Safe registration scheme is so important. You don’t want rogue gas fitters and maintenance guys going round the Island doing jobs – just safe, registered professionals. I’ve seen amateur jobs connected up with hose pipes, and I’ve even seen baked bean tins being used as pipe sleeves. You need to be safe in your home – and for that you need a professional. Every registered gas installer will now carry a Gas Safe ID card, and the jobs they’re qualified to do will be listed clearly on the back.’
Brian Arnold, Senior Health and Safety Inspector at the Department of Local Government and the Environment, said, ‘When we first heard that CORGI was changing to the Gas Safe Register in the UK we got together with gas fitters and maintenance engineers on the Island and decided it would be a good idea to change too – to keep it simple. Now everyone has to be on the Gas Safe Register – so customers will know what to look for.’
