April 2012 is the deadline by when engineers need to make sure they have taken the CPA1 assessment to be able to retain their work categories for boilers and fires; this means that engineers must be registered to work on gas fires, wall heaters, and central heating appliances and are competent to use an analyser.
Gas Safe register is not responsible for either the development or competence levels for the registered gas engineers.
How does it work?
Similarly to the DVLA, Gas Safe Register receives information and confirmation of engineer competencies sent electronically from certification bodies. These competencies allow holders to register and maintain their business registration.
In plain english it means that the Gas Safe Register set a range of standards and engineers are assessed to ensure competency and compliance. The Gas Safe Register issues what effectively is a license to practice on the basis of the assessment.
Gas Safe Register is a member of the Standards Setting Function operated on behalf of the gas industry by Energy and Utility Skills. Made up of representatives from the gas industry including EU Skills, SummitSkills the HSE, awarding bodies and Gas Safe Register.
The SMB (Strategic Management Board) is one part of the gas safety standards setting function and one of its functions is to validate the decisions of the Standards Consultation Forum and the Standards Development Unit.
Separating the role of registration and competency standards setting body took place when Gas Safe Register became the registrar of competent gas businesses in April 2009.
EU Skills is the skills Council for gas and is responsible for setting the competence standards in the gas industry.
In a nutshell the Standards Setting Function was to ensure that competence to use an electronic combustion gas analyser would be made compulsory for engineers taking HTR1 or CEN1 assessments with effect from February 2010 and the competence is validated via the CPA1 assessment.
In essence the whole point to set a standard for the industry was to safeguard the public by ensuring that registered businesses working on gas fires, heaters, and central heating are able to demonstrate their ability to use a gas analyser when commissioning and maintaining appliances.
Any work undertaken after April 2012 on a domestic boiler or gas fire without holding the CPA1 will in effect be operating out of the scope of gas safe registration and will not be complying with the rules.
