On Friday, 8 May 2015 13:43:43 UTC+1, whisky-dave wrote:
3.--(1) No person shall carry out any work in relation to a gas fitting or
gas storage vessel unless he is competent to do so.
As I said and asked "he" means a women can not do the job, and there's
no indication of how a person is deemed to be "competent to do so".

Actually there is a law which says "he" means "he or she" in laws unless the
context shows otherwise.

As you say, the law doesn't say what "competent" means - so the standard rule
for interpreting laws means we just use the ordinary meaning of the word.

How would an employer know whether an individual can do the specific task ?
And this individual referred to as a person, it mentions nothing about whether
you pay them or whether they are your a brother or uncle or friend.
Quite. If you do it yourself, or your brother does it for you, or whatever,
the person doing it has to be "competent".

(2) The employer of any person carrying out such work for that employer,
every other employer and self-employed person who has control to any extent
of such work and every employer and self-employed person who has required
such work to be carried out at any place of work under his control shall
ensure that paragraph (1) above is complied with in relation to such work.

That just says that they can go after the boss as well as the incompetent
fitter.

(3) Without prejudice to the generality of paragraphs (1) and (2) above and
subject to paragraph (4) below, no employer shall allow any of his employees
to carry out any work in relation to a gas fitting or service pipework and no
self-employed person shall carry out any such work, unless the employer or
self-employed person, as the case may be, is a member of a class of persons
approved for the time being by the Health and Safety Executive for the purposes
of this paragraph.
(Where the only such "class of person" currently approved is "registered with
GasSafe")

Of course if you believe that the word employ means you have to pay someone
then maybe your right but in English Employ doesn't just mean that.

I think that "employ" *does* mean you have to pay - but the pay doesn't have
to be money. It might even be "love and affection"; which means getting
your brother to do the gas might be problematic *BUT* doing it yourself
(if you are competent) is fine.

If what you say is true then why would there be any legislation on this
you can just say, anyone that thinks they can do the work is allowed to do so.

No. Anyone that actually *can* do the work is allowed to - not just thinks
they can.

Or anyone can do gas work provided they don't charge you for doing it and
you don't reward them in any other way.

That's right.

This would enable charities to take on such work.
Not really. Only a real person (in legal speak, "a natural person") can
actually do the work. The only way a charity could do it, is to to
employ somebody - at which point you are back to "is a member of a class of
persons". (A charity probably could organize volunteer gas fitters - but
is *very* unlikely to do so.)