Gas Appliances (Hansard, 18 July 1985)

§ Mr. Peter Bottomley

There is evidence of an improvement in the level of gas safety over the past few years. We are anxious further to reduce the risks. The chairman of the Health and Safety Commission has told me that in the commission's view the greatest risk arises from installation downstream of the service pipe. One of the major tasks is ensuring adequate standards of competence of gas installers. The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1984 require competence in installation work. Precise requirements have not been defined. The commission considers that an essential step is to set standards for training. These can be widely promulgated as well as provising a legal framework.

The commission has asked the Health and Safety Executive to bring together a panel of experts, including representatives from the gas industry, to develop an approved code of practice on standards of training for gas installers, under the Health and Safety at Work Act etc. 212W 1974, which will also provide evidence for the better definition of requirements for competence. The text will be considered by representatives of gas consumers and the trade unions, and will be issued next year, after publication for consultation.

The commission does not at present consider that the addition of mandatory registration could achieve much that would not be effectively brought about by firmer training and competence requirements; and it would in addition impose a bureaucratic and costly system on the large number of installers—costs which would be passed on to the numerous consumer population in the form of higher charges, with the result that poorer ones would be even less likely to call in installers for essential servicing. The commission advise, however, that this is an option which might be considered if, for instance, the balance of risk were to change and the recent encouraging trend were reversed.