Legally required for gas work
Gas Safe Register check
Twenty seconds on the official register tells you whether the person about to work on your boiler is legally allowed to. A minute more tells you whether the company taking your money is worth paying.
Open the official Gas Safe RegisterOpens gassaferegister.co.uk. We are not affiliated with Gas Safe.
Where we stand. Gas Safe blocks automated checking and has no public API, so nobody can check it inside an instant report, us included. Anyone who says they have is selling you a result they did not get. The register check below is one you do yourself, and it takes less time than reading this paragraph.
The five-step check
- 1
Ask for the licence number before any work starts
Every registered engineer carries a Gas Safe ID card with a licence number on it. Asking for it is normal and no legitimate engineer will be offended. If the answer is that the card is in the van, the check can wait until it is in your hand.
- 2
Search the number on the official register
Go to gassaferegister.co.uk and use the check-the-register search. It takes about twenty seconds. Searching by licence number is more reliable than searching by business name, because trading names change and the licence does not.
- 3
Check the photo, the expiry date and the security hologram
The card shows the engineer's photograph, a start and expiry date, and a hologram. A card that has expired means the registration may have lapsed, and the register is the thing that decides, not the card.
- 4
Check the back of the card for the work they are qualified to do
This is the step most people skip. The reverse lists the specific categories the engineer is qualified for: boilers, cookers, fires, commercial catering, LPG, and so on. Registration for one category is not registration for all of them.
- 5
Check the business behind the engineer
Gas Safe registration covers competence to do gas work. It says nothing about whether the company taking your deposit is solvent, whether its accounts are overdue, or what its directors have done before. That is a separate check, and it is the one that decides whether your money is at risk.
Step five, right here
Registration proves competence. It does not prove the company is solvent. Type the firm's name as it appears on the quote to see its status, age, overdue filings, insolvency history and the directors' other companies, free.
The other badges, and what they are worth
Gas Safe: legally required
Not optional, not a quality badge. Anyone touching gas work must be on it, for the categories of work they are doing.
OFTEC and HETAS: the oil and solid fuel equivalents
If the appliance burns oil or solid fuel rather than gas, these are the competent person schemes that apply. Same principle: check the individual, and check what they are approved for.
TrustMark, NICEIC, FMB: voluntary
Useful signals, freely claimed and rarely checked. Each has a public search, and a firm displaying a logo it is not entitled to is telling you something on its own. The builder check page lists them all.
Public liability insurance: no register exists
There is no UK database of live policies, so nobody can tell you online whether cover is in force today. Take the insurer name, policy number, limit and expiry in writing, then confirm the insurer itself is authorised on the FCA register.
Questions people ask
Does CheckAFirm check the Gas Safe Register for me?
No, and we will not pretend otherwise. Gas Safe blocks automated access entirely and offers no self-serve API, so any instant report claiming to have checked it for you has not done so. What we do is check the company behind the engineer at Companies House, and give you the direct link, the number to ask for and what to look at when you get there.
Is Gas Safe registration a legal requirement?
Yes. Anyone carrying out work on gas appliances, boilers or gas pipework in Great Britain must be on the Gas Safe Register. It replaced CORGI as the official register in 2009. Using an unregistered person for gas work is not a grey area, and it can invalidate a home insurance policy as well as being dangerous.
What if the engineer says the company is registered rather than the person?
Both exist on the register, and both matter. The business holds a registration and each engineer holds a licence number of their own. The person who turns up at your door is the one who has to be qualified for the specific work, so check the individual as well as the firm.
Is CORGI still valid?
No. CORGI stopped being the official gas registration body in April 2009 and was replaced by Gas Safe. A firm still advertising itself as CORGI registered in 2026 is either using very old marketing material or is not currently registered at all. Check the Gas Safe Register either way.
What should I do if someone is not on the register?
Do not let them touch the gas work. You can report unregistered gas work to HSE, which is the enforcing authority, and to Gas Safe. If work has already been done, Gas Safe can arrange an inspection of it, and you should have the appliance checked by a registered engineer before it is used again.
Do I get paperwork after gas work?
For notifiable work such as installing a boiler, the engineer must notify Building Control through the Gas Safe scheme and you should receive a Building Regulations compliance certificate, usually within a few weeks. Keep it. Its absence causes problems when you sell the property.