For this year’s Gas Safety Week (14-20 September), IGEM’s Large Business Forum (LBF) is renewing its appeal for gas professionals to spread the word among fellow tradespeople of the dangers of interfering with existing gas installations when working in buildings.

To coincide with this, the forum has released refreshed guidance to help tradespeople ensure they do not contravene Regulation 8 of the Gas Safety Installation & Use Regulations (GSIUR) L56.

The Gas Safety Installation and Use Regulations place legal duties on all trades to keep gas installations safe. When businesses and tradesmen undertake planned or responsive property work that could affect the safety of existing gas installations, such as roofing, plumbing, building, refurbishment, etc., they have legal responsibilities and obligations to be observant and to ensure their work does not affect the safety of gas fittings.

Disturbing or damaging gas appliances, flues, pipework, or ventilation could affect safety, cause harm to workers, gas users and the public, by creating gas leaks, fires, explosions or carbon monoxide poisoning risks.

Businesses and tradespeople, e.g., builders, handymen, window/ventilation or cladding installers, etc., must ensure the work they do doesn’t compromise gas safety – or they could face prosecution.

IGEM’s Large Business Forum (LBF) is renewing its focus on all those who undertake property repairs & refurbishments for this year’s Gas Safety Week. This ongoing campaign is aimed at helping businesses that may in some way affect gas fittings, such as construction firms, to ensure they keep gas users safe. 

This initiative is supported by IGEM, Heating & Hotwater Industry Council, Association of Plumbing & Heating Contractors, Gas Safe Register and Health & Safety Executive.

Alongside this, Gas Safe Register has produced a targeted factsheet for gas users who employ tradesmen to undertake work in their property with an aligned message.

The LBF, in collaboration with wider industry, has produced two simple risk assessments that are free to download:

• A risk assessment for project managers and non-gas workers who may not be gas competent. 
• A technical survey (risk assessment) for Gas Safe registered competent engineers. 

It is extremely important all surveys and risk assessments are recorded and held on file for retrieval.

There is also a fact sheet to demonstrate how their guidance should be applied. 

All are free to download on the Large Business Forum page of IGEM’s website.