Dear Engineer,
We know that the last week has been a testing time for all. The growing seriousness of the pandemic situation and the uncertainty that it causes every one of us, both in our work and in our personal lives, has raised a lot of questions.
We also know that many of you are doing all you can to keep supporting your customers and have been looking to Gas Safe Register for guidance on how you can continue to practice safe and legal gas work. We appreciate the support you have shown our staff and inspectors at this time too.
Until the announcement made by the UK Prime Minister on 23rd March, restricting people to their homes, we continued to operate gas safety inspections and investigations, focusing on the highest risks. Our inspectors have been taking a range of precautions to protect the public and engineers that they come into contact with, as well as themselves, based on the guidance provided to businesses and the public on Gov.uk.
The HSE is currently seeking guidance from Cabinet Office on the gas engineering services and scenarios which are considered essential for the next 3 weeks; for example, attending emergency breakdown, versus installing a new appliance. As soon as more definitive guidance is available, we will publish this.
As of the evening of 23rd March, we expect to suspend Gas Safety inspections until we have further guidance. We expect we will need to continue Gas Safety Investigations, but will confirm this soon, once we the guidance from Cabinet Office and HSE on what they need from the industry, to support the nation. We had already suspended all of our Inspection Events for the time being, and are looking at suitable alternatives to attending an event in person. This work will continue, and we will communicate details of these as soon as they have been decided. For registered engineers, we now have temporary guidance from the Health and Safety Executive regarding ACS qualification renewals during the pandemic. You can click here to access it and read our FAQs. For advice on the extra support for businesses, head to Gov.uk.
You will continue to find all our latest information and advice on topics such as ACS renewals, landlords gas safety records, and how we are adapting our own service at Gas Safe Register in response to the pandemic. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn for updates as we all continue to adapt to the situation.
Finally, to support our own teams and their families during the pandemic, we have changed our opening hours for our Customer Service and Technical Team, to 9am - 5pm, Monday to Friday.
Yours faithfully,
Vicky Lincoln,
Marketing & Customer Services DirectorBob Kerr
Gas Services Director
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