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Changes to key criteria for people working on boilers and space heaters
22 November 2011
Changes to some of the key criteria relating to registration work categories for people working on 'boilers and space heaters' comes into effect on 1 April 2012.
This criteria will require that if you hold CEN1 (Central Heating Boilers) or CENWAT (Central Heating Boilers & Water Heaters combined) or HTR1 (space heaters) Gas Safe Registration you need to ensure that by 1 April 2012 you also hold a certificate of competence for Combustion Performance Analysis (CPA1).
After 1 April 2012, registered engineers who do not hold a current and valid CPA1 certificate of competence but hold either CEN1 or HTR1 will have these work categories suspended by Gas Safe Register until they obtain CPA1. This will mean that engineers will not legally be able to work on central heating boilers or space heaters until they have obtained the CPA1 qualification.
Who made this decision?
The new competence criteria was introduced through the Standards Setting function (SSF) facilitated by Energy & Utility Skills Ltd. (EU Skills). When Gas Safe Register took over the function of operating the register of competent gas businesses, the responsibility for competence standard setting for the gas industry (including ACS) was transferred to Energy and Utility Skills Ltd., the Sector Skills Council for the Gas Industry who are licensed by Government to establish occupational standards for the whole industry. EU Skills have established a structure to allow industry to have direct involvement in the setting of gas safety competence standards. More information on how this function operates, and how you may participate in future may be found on in the gas section of this website.
Why was the decision made?
The decision was made after consultation with the industry and other stakeholders and was first communicated through the Registered Gas Engineer magazine in November 2009. The decision, together with the implementation timetable was determined after a wide range of factors, including the projected demand for the ACS assessments CEN1 and HTR1, the impact on registered businesses/engineers, the availability of assessment resources and the improved safety benefit to consumers had been considered. An eighteen month lead in time was built into the schedule to allow for businesses to plan their workload and compliance activities in readiness for the April 2012 deadline.
Act now
If this affects you or one of your registered engineers, you need to act quickly and arrange for the CPA1 assessment to be successfully undertaken. You also need to be aware that you will need to allow up to six weeks for the successful completion of the assessment to be downloaded to Gas Safe Register. This heightened communication exercise is to ensure that people still needing to complete CPA1 have sufficient time to address the matter and potentially create unnecessary problems for their business. If a large number of people wait until the last possible date, demand may well exceed the assessment capacity of centres and lead to difficulties in meeting the deadline.
Remember, you can take reassessments up to six months prior to their expiry dates without losing any of the five year certification lifespan under the ACS MOT arrangement. Contact your assessment centre for further details on this facility.
For further information on CPA1 you can download the following source information.
- The ACS combustion performance analysis assessment (CPA1) technical bulletin
- Registered Gas Engineer article January 2010
- Registered Gas Engineer article November 2009
Future Steps
An additional subsequent SSF decision has been to include the CPA1 criteria into relevant Core assessments from April 2012. This means that anyone renewing their Core assessment after that date will cover the CPA criteria as part of that assessment. EU Skills is committed to consolidating and streamlining assessments wherever this is practical and any decisions on future changes will include industry consultation in line with the SSF due process (please see the Gas Section of this website for more information)
For further information on the Gas Safe Register please visit www.gassaferegister.co.uk
