In article ,
"Skeats" writes:

It's not a case for getting a so called "professional" but getting a
properly qualified one. Bodged work leads to higher charges later for
repair.

Now "By law, only registered engineers should carry out gas work in people's
properties.

This register is overseen by the Gas Safe Register, a safety body that
replaced Corgi in April 2009"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8259385.stm

If you go and read the Gas Safety Regs yourself, you would
know that what the BBC wrote there is incorrect.

Actually, I don't mind people who haven't read the regs being
under the impression they aren't allowed to do gas work, as
if you don't know the gas regs, then you aren't "competent"
to do the work, and the regs require you to be "competent".
Someone who's being paid to do the work has to be on the
Gas Safe Register, but if you are doing your own, you need
to be "competent".

New laws on electrical work were brought in in 2005 I think. See
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4048371.stm
i.e. "DIY-ers are to be hit by new laws set to come into force in January to
combat unsafe electrical work. From next year "significant" electrical work
will have to be carried out by a qualified and registered electrician, the
government has confirmed. If householders decide to do the work themselves,
it will have to be checked by local authority building inspectors. "

Compliance is apparently less than 1%, with many local authorities
never having had any requests for checks, and some others refusing
to undertake them. The majority of home wiring other than initial
installation is (and has always been) DIY in the UK, and the majority
of that is fine. It has been pointed out many times that there are
nowhere near enough electricians or LA BCO's to undertake that
electrical work/inspection. Installations which are found to be in
a dangerous state are mainly down to those which haven't been touched
when they should have been and are thus old and/or inadequate.

Linda Barker may have been advertising NICEIC Group? "the electrical
contracting industry's independent voluntary body for electrical
installation matters throughout the UK."
Not ******** by a long way.

I have a friend who, with her two children, ended up in hospital when her
husband "mended" her boiler. Carbon monoxide poisoning.

And he was breaking the law, because he wasn't competent do to
the work (which is what the law requires). That is unusual though.
Most bad incidents are caused by unregistered cowboys, followed by
registered fitters who got it wrong, followed by other professional
builders whose work made an existing appliance unsafe. DIY gas
incidents are pretty unheard of, which was partly why the HSE didn't
ban them when gas safety regs were rewritten, even though the trade
body wanted them to do so (for their obvious gain, of course).

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]