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Association of Plumbing and Heating Contractors

Association of Plumbing and Heating Contractors is a trade Association for the Plumbing and Heating Industry in England and Wales. APHC offers Plumbing and Heating operatives a range of membership services to suit their requirements from Licenced membership, to membership of the Competent Persons Scheme to Online Notifications. Since the inception of Building Regulations, areas of plumbing and heating works are required to be reported to Local Authority Building Control Departments. The APHC Competent Persons Scheme allows firms to self certify their work with building control as an alternative to submitting building notice applications.

Gas Safe Register

Gas Safe Register has replaced CORGI in Great Britain and the Isle of Man. The register exists to protect you, your family, and your property from dangerous gas work. By law, anyone carrying out work on gas installations and appliances in your home must be on the Gas Safe Register.  You can find a Gas Safe registered business in your area by entering your postcode.  Every gas safe engineer carries a Gas Safe card which verifies that they are who they say they are and which also gives details of the work they are legally allowed to undertake. Always ask to see their card.

Landlords and tenants can find advice on rights and responsibilities regarding gas appliances and gas safety when renting a property.

National Inspection Council for Electrical Installation Contracting (Domestic Installer)

The NICEIC maintains a register of electrical contractors, assessed every year by one of the Council's Area Engineers to confirm that their business and the technical standard of their electrical work complies with the Council's rules.

Where a consumer is not satisfied with the technical standard of an Approved Contractor's electrical work, the NICEIC offers a complaints resolution service.

NICEIC Domestic Installers are registered to self-certify domestic electrical installation work in England and Wales

SAFEcontractor

Health and safety accreditation allows businesses to show that their health and safety documentation is up to date and meets recognised industry standards.

SafeContractor delivers a tailored health and safety accreditation allowing contractors to showcase their capabilities to potential customers. To gain your health and safety accreditation you submit your details on one online platform and complete an assessment once a year, promoting your business to hundreds of organisations. Join a community of over 33,000 like-minded contractors and use the SafeContractor badge to enhance your business profile and demonstrate compliance.

Water Industry Approved Plumber Scheme

The Government is campaigning against cowboy building in a number of ways. One way is to include in the new Regulations some useful concessions for an Approved Contractor Plumber, who will be competent in complying with the Regulations.

The Approved Plumber has been given a very useful concession in that he/she may start work without notification or prior consent on certain types of work, provided he/she issues the customer (and for some types of work, the Water Supplier) with a certificate of compliance of the work when it is completed. This can save up to ten days of waiting for the Water Supplier’s consent and reduces the paperwork of notification.

Approved plumbers can be authorized by either the local Water Supplier, the Water Industry Scheme (WIAPS) or by an organization recognized by the Government (IOP/APHC/SNIPEF).

WIAPS is funded by most of the Water Suppliers to administer an approved plumbers scheme for them. In order to become a WIAPS member, a plumber has to show that he/she has suitable training as a plumber, adequate knowledge of the Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999, sufficient public liability insurance cover, to demonstrate adequate knowledge of the Regulations he/she must pass an assessment.