Inspect the right people in the right way

In response to the letter in March from Geoff Sandford (Gas safety comes with experience), first there can be no separate rules from one engineer to another when it comes to competence. Experience does not necessarily mean competent, the same as qualified does not necessarily mean competent. If you want to work on gas, then you need to renew your ACS and register with Gas Safe, which is the requirement currently.

I totally sympathise with anyone forced to carry out the online Unsafe Situations quizzes, carried out in the guise of an ‘inspection’. These quizzes do not allow engineers to exercise their own engineering judgement because you must answer exactly what it says in IGEM/G/11.

IGEM/G/11 is a guidance document, which means gas engineers can choose to carry out a risk assessment and use their own judgement on how they classify a certain situation and subsequently deal with whatever level of risk that they, as the ‘signing’ engineer, deem it to be. I was under the impression that Gas Safe encourage this.

COVID is no longer a valid excuse, in my opinion, to continue down this path, along with the other ridiculous practice of grouping 30 engineers together in a hotel room to do an unsafe situations quiz

(inspection en masse).

If an engineer does not want or has no access to a computer, they should have the option to be inspected by an inspector. I’m sorry to hear that Geoff will not be renewing, which is obviously not what he wanted, hence the letter. I think Gas Safe should be doing all they can to accommodate his inspection. As he has stated, he is very experienced and should not be put in this position.

The main issue with all of this is that Gas Safe does not prove competence: that is proven by the hundreds of gas assessment establishments up and down the UK. Surely Gas Safe should be concentrating its efforts on inspecting any establishment that offers gas training and assessments, to ensure they are following the scheme rules.

If we pass an engineer in our centre, we are presenting them to Gas Safe as competent and, as such they can be entered on to the Register. Why does Gas Safe then need to inspect them? Is this due to a lack of trust?

If so, then inspect the centres: it’s simple.

Julian Hearn, Sterling Assessment Services

Gas Safe Register says: Gas Safe Register operates a risk-based inspection programme on behalf of the HSE. Every Gas Safe registered business is assessed using a range of risk factors, which are used to determine their risk rating, eg, low risk, medium risk, high risk. The rating associated with a business dictates their inspection frequency.

Virtual inspection events and inspection events are a type of inspection that we use to assess registered businesses/engineers who would not normally attract inspection under the risk model (low risk) to ensure they are applying their competence.

When a business is invited to attend a virtual inspection event, they are sent instructions on how to join and what equipment is required to complete this type of inspection – for example, they must have a webcam. If a business does not have the correct equipment, they are advised that they will need to contact Gas Safe Register and a suitable alternative method of inspection will take place.

During a virtual inspection event or an inspection event, the attending engineer is required to complete a knowledge check to ensure they are applying their competence on the relevant subject matter – in this case the Gas Industry Unsafe Situations Procedure. If a registered business/engineer is not successful, they are told the outcome and will be booked in for another inspection.

Positive feedback from attending engineers is high, with 90 per cent saying they would be happy to complete an inspection in this way again.

The Gas Industry Unsafe Situations Procedure (IGEM/G/11) has been drawn up by the gas industry in order to assist competent engineers meet their legal duties in accordance with the GSIUR and associated Approved Codes of Practice and Guidance, and correctly classify unsafe gas installations. HSE supports this document, which assists the industry in maintaining a consistent approach to the risk assessment of gas installations. Gas engineers who identify unsafe gas work will need to carry out a risk assessment and refer to IGEM/G/11 to establish the correct risk category.

Regarding the inspection of training/ACS centres, if a training centre is registered with Gas Safe, they are subject to the same inspection as every other business registered with us. The ACS assessment centre would not be inspected because they are United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) accredited, via independent certification bodies: therefore it would be the responsibility of those bodies to inspect these centres.