Next year Corgi registration is not going to be a requirement for gas engineers – not a lot of people know this.
Corgi registration has been a legal requirement for gas safety for more than 10 years – most people know Corgi registration is the thing to look for and Corgi are the body to address gas concerns.
In order to be Corgi registered every individual has to sit and re-sit exams – practical and written every five years which are run by approved centres (not Corgi) – each individual has their own unique number and ID card which will detail the exact gas items which they are deemed competent in.
A company/individual must register annually and any of their work can be inspected randomly by a Corgi inspector.
Ok – the gas engineers must still be registered but under a new scheme. Only 7 months to go and here is what we don’t know:
- What will the scheme be called?
- What logo will it have?
- Will those currently registered with Corgi continue to keep the same registration number under the new scheme?
What we do know is that a company called Capita will run the registration scheme – for a while at least.
We know that a new ‘BRAND’ is going to be developed which will be independent of the company that runs it. Whereas Corgi is a company that ‘own’ the ‘Corgi’ brand. Corgi will continue to exist.
The implications of this change are massive both to registered gas engineers and to the public.
From my point of view: For most companies we need to be prepared 12 months or so in advance because of the financial implications – our Corgi registration details are on our letterheads, our sign written vehicles, and in our adverts – there are legal requirements about these.
E.g. advertising is often prepared 12 months in advance – you know how long you keep the Yellow Pages – you may not realise that the copy for those adverts has been submitted a long time before publication.
For the public I think it is going to be very confusing and for a while it will be difficult to be confident that the person you employ is in fact registered with the correct body as we do not know what they will be called – telephone number or website. Can this all be put in place with sufficient publicity in such a short time?
Recipe for disaster?
This is happening because the Health & Safety Executive HSE are in charge of the whole thing and they thought it would be a good idea – back in 2006!
Why not more publicity?
You can’t blame Corgi – it is not their responsibility – here is what they say:
www.trustcorgi.com/news/corgi/HSEDecision.htmx
As for the HSE they say everything has been detailed on their website. I’m sure we all regularly look there to see if there is any important changes we should know about:
www.hse.gov.uk/gas/domestic/bidder.htm
And read more here:
http://home-plumbing.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_new_gas_safe_register_in_great_britain
I bet you it is the same philosophy as Part P Building Regs for Electricians. Addressing the shortage of skilled people by breaking the work down into separate activities (He can do sockets but not bathrooms and he can’t test) and making an admin nightmare.
Wait and see. Adverts will appear offering training and a franchise to be an instant plumber.
New Labour. A kitchen fitter did some wiring that electrocuted a Labour MP’s daughter. Result ? Regulations amonting to a cowboys charter for the domestic electrical industry.
Rick, In this case it is not so much the regulation which I object to. I am almost speechless at the way major changes are bought about in a short time scale and with almost no-one knowing about them.
It seems like a mess as they started the process in 2006 – so there has been plenty of time for setting up a new gas safety ‘Brand’ and advertising.
Since I have worked in construction there has been new stuff to do every year – but at least we normally get lots of information and notice about these changes. (Eg. from Inland Revenue – never thought I’d praise their efficiency and compare them to another public body!!!)
Part P Building Regulations – electrics – came in a few years back.
It has no impact on our company as we subcontract ALL electrical work to an excellent team of local electrians who can do all we need to.
As our work is mostly in Bathrooms, Kitchens and gardens anyone touching the electrics has to be qualified (it is just about OK to change a light bulb or turn on the kettle in those rooms if you are a lay person like myself).
I have heard a lot of complaints about it from the qualified electricians themselves, though. Like you say – an admin nightmare for them. Of course, safety is important but it has also put up the labour cost of doing many ’simple’ electrical jobs and customers often don’t want to pay for stuff they don’t appreciate.
Around the same time as Part P for electrics there was changes to do with Gas.
Anyone can buy a gas appliance, but for many years only someone with the correct CORGI registration was legally allowed to attach it to the gas.
But how would you know?
2 or 3 years ago there came in new regulations.
Now any gas appliance (eg Boiler) must be registered by the Corgi engineer, when it is installed.
Corgi then directly send the customer/homeowner a certificate of registration.
This is a simple process which I think most Corgi registered companies approve of:
it is simple,
cuts down on cowboys,
actually helps us to keep a record of the work we have done – because our work is registered elsewhere.
It has always bothered me that large companies can be registered and that covers all the employees so that they are all registered (even though they might have zero skill or experience). When worker turnover is fairly high this raises questions that make feel uncomfortable with the way things are done. This is the case with the way council contracts are handled and it bothers me to hear mutterings of “I’m not sure what I’m doing with this one” and “I’ve never ‘done’ one of these before”. Fingers crossed nothing bad has happened but it shakes one’s confidence all the same.
I wonder if this potential loop hole might be closed up?
Matt,
the Corgi registration does not cover all employees.
If it did I’d be entitled to go and do gas work myself as a Part-time aadmin employee for ‘TARA’!!!
A company can have Corgi a registration number.
But each employee is only registered to do the work that the are qualified and tested to do – that detail is unique to the individual. It is recorded on their corgi card and against their unique opperative ID number.
So when an individual does work in your house – you can check that that individual is suitably qualified – simply by checking their ID card and/or telephoning Corgi.
It seems someone from Mears has been telling me lies. Thank you for enlightening me.
Sorry to be late in reply.
I have reported to Institute of Electrical enginerrs re unreliability of backup generators on roles like emergency nuclear plant shut downs and on hospitals.
We now have new Security of Electrical Supply Regs to hospitals (2007)
But basically outside of domestic electrical installations there is no such thing as national electrical engineering standards. (I am quoting the Head of Engineering Standards at IEE)
One of the effects of Labour’s no notice kneejerk regulation on the hoof activity is, in my view, that it undermines local tech colleges.
In the old days, in my view, Canterbury Tech walked a very well balanced line between meeting the bespoke needs of industry (such as the coalmines) whilst also maintaining academic standards.
In Wales, in my view, swimming in grant aid the tech colleges went too far down the bespoke route (anything to support jobs being created) and they gained discretion to dumb down stanbdards yet award the same qualifications (HNC ONC etc)
Once they start breaking down the trades so that parasite franchises start springing up and instant private training schemes then it forces local techs into competition and standards are lost.
I think there is a hidden agenda with over regulation and I think it is to try to create mechanistic systems to respond to skills shortages without proper investment in tech colleges and apprenticeships. In which regulations replace knowledge and training. And it won’t work. There is no replacement for the tradesman.
There was an IEE Report in 1984 which p[ublished research shopwing that 93% of managers in UK Electrical Engineering are totally unqualified by eirher education or experience. On a security level this makes us the most easily sabotaged country in the Western world.
And the report pointed to the fact that we had entered the end stages of a skilled class who both knew theiur job and knew their place.
We are moving to the age of the chancer who is prepared to know hisn place … to do his mechanistic increment and to have no overall knowledge. The age of the man who knows his place but does not know his job.
So I fear Labour’s regulate on the hoof philosophy.
I recall when I weas in Army and we were with US Army. The US had a team of twelve men to carry out arming of equipment. The British had three men all of whom could do all the tasks. You would only have had to kill one Septic to stop that team. Each Yank only knew his increment.
This back then was seen as a strength of the British Army.
Here you are Mrs TP
http://www.btsc.co.uk
“The UK will need 375 new plumbers per month for years.”
Train around your current job in fast track separably bookable one week modules.
to full City and Guilds and Corgi registration.
Instant skilled people from training on one week modules around their current job.
I give you New Labour and I wonder if it is time Planet Earth called them down to ground.