How to Check an Engineer on the Gas Safe Register

Why the check matters more in an emergency

Every business doing gas work in Great Britain must be on the Gas Safe Register. That is a legal requirement of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, and the register is run on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive. It replaced CORGI in 2009.

The check is easy on a planned job, when you can look someone up the day before. It is the emergency visit, at night with the heating off and a stranger at the door, when people skip it. That is exactly when it counts, because a boiler that has just broken down is more likely to need work inside the casing, and everything inside the casing is gas work.

Not every emergency job is gas work. Fixing a leaking pipe, bleeding radiators, repressurising a combi from the filling loop or thawing a frozen condensate pipe are not. Opening the boiler case, changing a gas valve, fan, PCB or burner part, or touching any gas pipe is.

Two minutes at the door: reading the ID card

A registered engineer carries a photo ID card and should show it without being asked twice. Look at the front first.

• The photo: it should be the person in front of you, not a colleague
• The engineer’s name and their personal licence number
• The name and registration number of the business they work for, which should match the company you called
• The start and expiry dates, plus the hologram on a plastic card or the QR code on a digital one: cards are reissued each year, so an out-of-date card is a warning sign

Photograph the card, both sides if it is plastic, or scan the QR code if it is digital. It takes seconds, a genuine engineer will not mind, and it gives you what you need to check the register.

What the engineer is qualified to work on

Being on the register does not mean an engineer can work on any gas appliance. Each engineer is qualified appliance by appliance. The back of a plastic card lists what they are qualified to do; on a digital card, scanning the QR code shows the same list on the register. This is the part most people never read.

For a boiler breakdown, look for central heating boilers under domestic natural gas. A card that only shows cookers and hobs, or only commercial catering equipment, does not cover your boiler, and a domestic-only card does not cover the gas cooking line in a restaurant kitchen emergency. LPG is a separate category, which matters if you are off the mains supply.

Qualifications are reassessed every five years, so a category that was on last year’s card can drop off. That is another reason to read the current card rather than rely on what the company’s website says.

Checking the register itself

On the Gas Safe Register website, use the "find or check an engineer" search and enter the licence number from the card. The result should show the same name, the same business and the same appliance categories. You can also search by business name to see which engineers are registered to it.

If the website does not load or you cannot use it, the register has a phone line; the number is on the Gas Safe Register website. Do not use a number printed on a flyer or given to you by the engineer.

A few things should make you look harder even when the card seems fine: an engineer who turns up from a different company to the one you rang, a van with no business name that matches the card, pressure to replace the whole boiler before any fault has been tested, or a request for cash before work starts. None proves anything on its own, but each is a reason to check the register before the case comes off rather than after.

If the card and the register do not agree, or the engineer cannot produce a card, do not let them start gas work. You can report someone doing gas work without being registered to the Gas Safe Register. It is a criminal offence, and the register investigates reports of illegal gas work.

What a proper gas repair looks like

Knowing what the engineer should do is almost as useful as checking the card. On a gas repair, a registered engineer will normally run a tightness test on the pipework before and after, then do a combustion analysis with a flue gas analyser on any boiler they have worked on. They should not leave a boiler running with the case off or the seal disturbed.

If they find something dangerous, they will explain it, may disconnect the appliance, and will leave a written warning notice classifying it as "Immediately Dangerous" or "At Risk". That is not them making up work; it is a procedure they are required to follow. If you doubt it, ask for a second opinion from another registered engineer before paying for a big repair.

If a gas smell is part of the problem, do not wait for any engineer. Open windows, turn off at the meter if safe, avoid switches, get out and call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999, as set out in what to do if you smell gas.

Landlords, tenants and certificates

If you rent, your landlord must have every gas appliance they supply safety-checked by a registered engineer every 12 months and give you a copy of the gas safety record within 28 days of the check. The record shows the engineer’s name, registration number and the result for each appliance. You can check that registration number the same way. More on landlord duties is in landlord responsibilities in a plumbing emergency, and agents can see how we handle tenant call-outs on emergency plumbing for landlords.

For our own visits, gas work is carried out by Gas Safe registered engineers, and you are welcome to check the card at the door. The £60 call-out covers getting an engineer to you at any hour, and the repair price is agreed with you on site before any work starts. For a boiler that has stopped, see emergency boiler repair.