Who may do gas work, the materials allowed in buildings, the precautions while work is under way, and where gas equipment may not go.
Parts A and B of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations apply to gas work of every kind. They settle who may do the work and the precautions that go with it, before any particular meter, pipe or appliance is considered.
Who may do the work
- Competence applies to everyone. No person may carry out work on a gas fitting or gas storage vessel unless competent to do it (regulation 3(1)).
- Registration for business work. An employer may not let employees work on a gas fitting or service pipework, and a self-employed person may not do that work, unless they belong to the class of persons approved by HSE, which is Gas Safe registration (3(3)). Falsely claiming to belong to it is prohibited (3(7)).
- Two named exemptions from registration, not from competence: replacing a hose or regulator on a portable or mobile space heater, and replacing a hose that connects a refillable cylinder to installation pipework (3(4)).
Materials
- Every part of a gas fitting must be of good construction and sound material, of adequate strength and size, and of a type suited to the gas it carries (5(1)).
- No lead or lead-alloy pipe may be installed in a building for gas supply. Non-metallic pipe may be used inside a building only to connect a readily movable appliance designed for use without a flue, or where a pipe enters the building and the section inside runs in a metallic sheath built to keep gas out of the building if the pipe fails (5(2)).
While the work is going on
- Gas released during the work must be prevented from becoming a danger to anyone (6(1)).
- A fitting may not be left unattended with an incomplete gasway: each one is sealed with the appropriate fitting unless the fitting is otherwise safe, and anyone disconnecting a fitting seals every outlet of every pipe it was connected to (6(2) and (3)). Tape, a closed valve with an open end beyond it, or a note to the occupier does not do that.
- No smoking or other ignition source where gasways are exposed, and no ignition source at all when searching for an escape (6(4) and (5)).
- Where the work might affect tightness, the installation is tested for gas tightness immediately afterwards, at least as far as the nearest valves upstream and downstream (6(6)).
- Where it is needed to prevent danger, a suitable bond keeps electrical continuity across a break in metal pipework until the work is finished and permanent continuity is restored (10).
Where gas equipment may not go, and what may not be done to it
- No gas storage vessel, and no LPG appliance with automatic ignition or a pilot light, may be installed in a cellar or basement (6(8)).
- No one may alter premises in a way that would leave an existing gas fitting in a condition that would break the regulations had it been installed after the alteration (8(1)). That duty falls on builders as much as on gas engineers: a conservatory built around a flue terminal is the classic case.
Emergency controls
Gas may not be supplied to premises for the first time unless there is an appropriately sited emergency control with adequate access (9(1)). Its lever lies parallel to the pipe when open, its open and shut positions are marked, and where it is not beside a primary meter a permanent notice near it gives the procedure to follow if gas escapes (9(2) and (3)).
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