No employer shall allow any of his employees to carry out any work in relation to a gas fitting or service pipework and no self-employed person shall carry out any such work, unless the employer or self-employed person, as the case may be, is a member of a class of persons approved for the time being by the Health and Safety Executive.
In addition to ensuring competence, all gas engineering businesses, including self-employed gas engineers, are (subject to limited exceptions) required to be in membership of a class of persons approved by HSE, whether they carry out such work as their main or part activity on their own behalf, need to be in membership of such class of persons, eg Gas Safe Registered, in their own right.
Where an employer or self-employed person requires any work in relation to a gas fitting to be carried out at any place of work under his control or where an employer or self-employed person has control to any extent of work in relation to a gas fitting, he shall take reasonable steps to ensure that the person undertaking that work is, or is employed by, a member of a class of persons approved by the Health and Safety Executive under regulation 3(3).
Businesses should make reasonable efforts to obtain evidence that any person they intend to perform gas installation work (subject to regulation 3(3)), either under contract or on their own behalf, is a member, or employed by a member, of a class of persons approved by HSE.
Regulation 4 applies to an employer/self-employed person requiring work to be done on a gas appliance/fitting installed at their workplace as well as to an employer or self-employed person having control over work done on a gas fitting, eg a contractor. The duty supplements that for checking competence under regulation 3(2).
At the time of publication of this extract of ACOP, the class of persons approved by HSE are those who are registered with Gas Safe Register.
For a more comprehensive view of the legislation we recommend you visit the Health and Safety Executive webpage.