Thursday 20 April 2017

Gas Safety at Church and in our Homes


Gas safety is a big issue in church and at home. Everyone, not just those who are disabled, are put at risk when the work undertaken that is not done correctly or safely. This certainly means that the fact someone has been laying gas pipes, and installing gas fuelled equipment for years does not mean a thing unless they have received the correct training and are registered with Gas Safe.[i] The Gas Safe web page states that there are nearly five-million households at risk from illegal gas fitters.[ii]



In our churches, we have a duty under the Health and Safety at Work Act[iii] to ensure that we do everything reasonable to ensure the safety of everyone who attend our church, and those that use it for other purposes, such as weekly clubs.[iv] Many of our churches now have catering facilities either in the church or adjacent buildings. Health and Safety law applies fully to places of religion!



Below are extracts from the Health and Safety Executive regarding a reported case whereby someone undertook gaswork without being registered. As you will see he received, by current standards, a fairly a robust sentence. So how do you ensure the person is Gas Safe registered? Simply go onto the Gas Safe web site and the information you need is at your fingertips.[v]



Let us not forget that we have a duty as Christians to share this information with all in our congregations: so please feel free to share this post.



“An unregistered gas fitter has been sentenced for illegally carrying out gas safety work at a rented house.

Peter Knight, aged 67 undertook landlords’ gas safety checks at the house above a pub on Marlborough Street, Plymouth and extended a gas supply pipe to feed the pub’s kitchen despite him having no expertise in gaswork or being registered with Gas Safe Register.

Knight convinced the house’s landlords he was registered to do the work by using a properly registered gas engineer’s company name and Gas Safe Register registration number on the gas safety records he produced for them.

Peter Knight of Cornwall Street, Plymouth pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 3(3) and 3(7) of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 and was sentenced to 16 months in prison, suspended for two years and to ordered to pay £2,000 costs.”[vi]



[i] Gas Safe Register, The Official List of Gas Engineers. https://www.gassaferegister.co.uk/
[ii] Gas Safe Register, Almost five Million Households at Risk from Illegal Gas Fitters. https://www.gassaferegister.co.uk/news/news-2017/almost-five-million-households-at-risk-from-illegal-gas-fitters/
[iv] Sections 2, 3, and 4 Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (Chapter 37)
[v] Gas Safe Register, Find and Engineer. https://www.gassaferegister.co.uk/find-an-engineer/
[vi] Cite this article as: Fr. Jeffrey A.Leach.CBV, " Gas Safety at Church and in our Homes
" in Disabling Barriers to Church Blog, 20 April 2017, http://disablingbarrierstochurch.blogspot.co.uk/

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