I’m happy to be corrected on anything I say below. I am going to ignore the requirements for Gas Safe Engineers as we are not talking about this, I am solely looking at what you can legally do in your own home.
The Gas Safe Register is run by Capita Group, they were appointed by the HSE in 2008 to run the new registration scheme. They are responsible for ensuring registered engineers are competent and improving consumer awareness. They do not make laws nor administer work in your own home, we therefore need to look to the HSE with reference to which laws might exist for consumers wishing to fix their own boilers.
I found this article on the HSE web site which I believe is still current. It was released in 2000 and I have not been able to find anything current that states otherwise. This document advises
“While current law does not prohibit DIY gas work provided that the person is competent to do it safely, DIY is strongly discouraged in HSE guidance” www.hse.gov.uk/consult/disdocs/dde14b.pdf Unfortunately they do not provide any guidance on what defines competent.
There is however, a new “Safety in the installation and use of gas systems and appliances” that comes into force on 5 April 2018.
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/l56.pdf I strongly recommend a read of this, I found it very informative.
The regulation sates “No person shall carry out any work in relation to a gas fitting or gas storage vessel unless he is competent to do so.”
Fortunately, in the new document we now have “ACOP” which is the Approved Code of Practice. This is not law, but it does state;
“Gas work should only be undertaken by a person who has successfully completed an industry-recognised training course followed by assessment of competence”
It also
mentions “the code has a special legal status. If you are prosecuted for breach of health and safety law, and it is proved that you did not follow the relevant provisions of the code, you will need to show that you have complied with the law in some other way or the court will find you at fault”
Previously I would argue that I am competent. However, going forward I think I would struggle to win this argument as the new policy coming into force now closes that door firmly shut by giving guidance on what they deem competent. There are no longer any grey areas. So on that note my first gas fitting replacement will be my last.
However, one thing I was not able to ascertain is where do you draw the line; I recall reading a wet plumber can replace the pump in a boiler, but I could not find that article again to conclude. Similarly I also read if a wet plumber installs the radiators a GSR engineer should do the final connection to the boiler. I’m gonna do some more research on that, but I think this post is big enough for now.
I’ve learnt a lot from this post, I’m hopeful others have to.