Following recent prosecutions for gas safety breaches, we thought it might be useful to outline what’s ok and what’s not when it comes to having your LPG powered equipment serviced by gas engineers.
Getting things ever so slightly wrong when it comes to working with gas can have dire consequences. To give yourself the best chance of maintaining gas safety in your mobile catering set up, it’s really important that you make sure the engineer servicing your gas appliances knows what they’re doing.
What the law says (in the Gas Safety (Installation & Use) Regulations 1998)
1. You must have all gas installation work done by a Gas Safe registered engineer (whether that’s domestic or commercial work)
2. Mobile caterers must only use Gas Safe engineers who are qualified in commercial appliances (you can’t use engineers only qualified in domestic appliances)
3. The Gas Safe engineer you use must be qualified to work on the specific piece of mobile catering equipment that they will be certifying (e.g. If you need your LPG griddle checked, the engineer must have the “Mobile Catering Range Cookers LPG” qualification)
4. You must have your appliances serviced at least annually and retain a gas certificate as proof.
How do you know if the engineer is qualified?
It’s really easy to check on the Gas Safe register, searching by name or area. When you have selected an engineer, look for ‘catering’ under ‘non-domestic area of work’ and then search within that section to see if the engineer has the appropriate mobile catering qualifications to work on your appliances. Remember, that has to include each specific type of appliance.
Have you had work done by an unqualified engineer?
If your installations have been serviced by an engineer who doesn’t have appropriate qualifications, your gas certificate will be invalid, and that could lead to legal trouble if you ever had an accident involving gas.
Take a look at the Gas Safe register, using the advanced tools to make sure that the engineer you used was ok and your certificate is valid.
The safest solution for finding the right engineer.
At NCASS we have our own merry band of tried, tested and trusted Gas Safe engineers for members, whom caterers can count on to work on their appliances time after time. They’ve all been personally recommended by caterers, and they all have various mobile catering qualifications. If you want an engineer you can trust, use an NCASS approved engineer.