The Department of Communities and Local Government (CLG) has put forward a proposal to Competent Persons Scheme operators that will significantly reduce the self-certification requirements of both plumbing (Part G) and ventilation (Part F) schemes that currently operate in England and Wales.
The reason for this proposed change is based around CLG’s concerns that current requirements within the statutory instrument do not reflect Government’s Health and Safety or Energy Efficiency agendas and needed to be clarified.
Ian Powney, CORGI’s Chief Operating Officer said: “We launched CORGI’s Plumbing and Ventilation schemes over 12 months ago to help our members comply with Government legislation. We support any changes that reduce regulatory burden placed on CORGI members. However, we are keen to ensure CLG appreciate that our members could be unfairly disadvantaged by these proposed changes. Over the last year, many CORGI members have invested heavily in the training required to join these schemes, and they are not alone. This proposal will impact on members of all G and F schemes run by other providers. Although there are many additional benefits of being a member of CORGI’s schemes irrespective of ability to self-certify certain work, we recognise this could be a significant change to the service. We are in the process of contacting all our scheme members to inform them of the proposed changes to ensure they are kept up to date. The timing of Government’s proposal means that, if implemented soon, all of our members would have renewed their registrations for the next 12 months and so we are keen to make them fully aware of this announcement now, whilst still at proposal stage. I can confirm that we will honour any and all refund requests based upon this intended change, should any members wish to cancel their registration. That said, even if the self-certification requirements are effectively removed from the schemes, we still feel that CORGI’s schemes offer excellent benefits and support to members far beyond any legislative elements, so have no intention of scrapping the schemes.”
These proposals do not affect CORGI’s Electrical scheme.