Following the Government Response to the Green Deal and Energy Company Obligation, published in June 2012, the Green Deal Oversight and Registration Body (GD ORB) would like to provide a clarification about the certification requirements for Gas Safe registered businesses under the Green Deal.
Today we have written to the Green Deal and ACS-accredited Certification Bodies and Training and Assessment Centres to advise of the approach we have taken to allow smooth entry into the Green Deal for the Gas Safe registered businesses.
Information will be provided directly to Gas Safe registered engineers via the October edition of their magazine.
The GD ORB has been working very closely with the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), Gas Safe Register and other stakeholders to identify a solution that would recognise the existing qualifications and competencies of Gas Safe registered businesses.
We fully support the position of DECC that any necessary costs and burdens on businesses should be minimised as much as possible, particularly in respect of those already operating in the marketplace under Government backed schemes. We have therefore consulted with Gas Safe Register and the key Certification Bodies to set out how this can be applied in practice.
The technical requirements for installers under the Green Deal are set out in the BSI standard PAS 2030. Following the initial gap analysis, it has been concluded that being Gas Safe registered alone is not sufficient to allow Gas Safe registered business to operate under the Green Deal and certification to PAS 2030 is required in addition to holding current certificates of competence and Gas Safe registration. In addition, the installers are required to sign up to the Green Deal Code of Practice, which sets out the obligations around the conduct of Green Deal participants, such as selling practices and contracting.
As the assessment by Green Deal Certification Bodies of companies installing gas measures will include an assessment of compliance with gas safety regulations, it has been agreed that Gas Safe registration for relevant types of work will be accepted as a method for demonstrating compliance with the gas safety elements of PAS 2030. However, the installation company will still be required to be approved and certified against PAS 2030 (in particular the quality management systems and installation processes requirements) by a Certification Body accredited by UKAS. This should be a relatively straight forward process and Certification Bodies have been advised how to approach this in a pragmatic and proportionate manner. Please refer to the Q&A section at the end of this article for further guidance.
We believe that the above approach will help to ensure consistency and quality across the Green Deal and we will be pleased to answer any questions you may have.
For any further information please contact a Green Deal Certification Body directly (listed on http://gdorb.decc.gov.uk/certification-body-search) or the GD ORB Helpdesk on gdhelpdesk@gemserv.com .