Gas safety for business premises

Gas safety at a business is not just a checklist item for landlords. If you employ anyone, or work for yourself, and there is a gas appliance, pipe or flue on your premises, the law puts specific duties directly on you.

What are your legal duties as an employer?

You must keep any gas appliance, pipework or flue at your workplace in a safe condition, and gas work must only be carried out by someone properly qualified to do it. Regulation 35 of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 puts this duty on every employer and self-employed person directly: any gas appliance, installation pipework or flue installed at a place of work under their control must be maintained in a safe condition, so as to prevent risk of injury to anyone.

HSE’s own guidance for employers is blunt about why this matters. If gas appliances are not properly installed and maintained, the risks are fire, explosion, gas leaks and carbon monoxide poisoning, and CO poisoning in particular can kill or cause serious long-term harm before anyone realises there is a problem.

Who is allowed to do gas work at your premises?

Not just anyone with basic DIY skills, and the law is specific about this. Regulation 3 of the Gas Safety Regulations says an employer must not allow an employee, and a self-employed person must not themselves, carry out gas fitting work unless they belong to a class of persons approved by the Health and Safety Executive. In practice, HSE’s guidance translates this into a clear split by premises type:

Type of premises	Who can do the work
Domestic properties, and workplaces such as shops, restaurants, schools and hospitals	A Gas Safe registered engineer qualified for the work
Factories, mines, quarries, agricultural premises, construction site huts and sewage works	A competent person with the necessary training, skills, experience and knowledge, excluding any residential areas within these sites, which still need a Gas Safe registered engineer

Most ordinary commercial premises, a cafe, an office, a shop, a hotel, fall into the first category. If your business runs a commercial kitchen, this matters even more, because Gas Safe Register is direct on the point: the only person permitted to work on commercial catering gas appliances is a Gas Safe registered engineer specifically qualified for catering equipment, not simply gas work in general.

How do you check an engineer is actually qualified for your job?

Ask before any work starts, not after. Every Gas Safe registered engineer carries a photo ID card showing a 7-digit licence number, an expiry date, and the specific categories of gas work they are registered for. You can verify that number directly through the Gas Safe Register. This step matters more in a commercial setting than a domestic one, because an engineer can be validly Gas Safe registered without being qualified for every type of commercial equipment. Someone competent to service a domestic boiler is not automatically qualified to work on a commercial catering range, so check the specific category on their card matches the job, particularly for catering equipment.

Is an annual gas safety check a legal requirement?

This is where a lot of business advice online overstates the position, so it is worth being precise. There is no single regulation setting a fixed annual check for every ordinary business workplace. What regulation 35 actually requires is that appliances, pipework and flues are kept in a safe condition, full stop, without specifying how often a check has to happen. Gas Safe Register’s own general recommendation is that gas equipment and systems are checked at least once a year, unless the manufacturer specifies a different timescale, and this is the practical way most businesses demonstrate they are meeting the underlying maintenance duty. It is best practice with a clear safety rationale behind it, rather than a single, standalone legal mandate for every business the way it might be assumed to be.

The position is different, and stricter, if you are a landlord.

What if you are a landlord letting premises with residential accommodation?

Here the law is explicit and leaves no room for interpretation. Regulation 36 puts a specific duty on landlords: any relevant gas fitting must be checked for safety within 12 months of installation, and at intervals of no more than 12 months after that. Landlords must also keep a record of each check, retained until two further checks have taken place (or for two years, for an appliance that has been removed), and give tenants a copy within 28 days of the check.

The key question for a mixed-use building, a pub with a flat above, or a shop beneath residential flats, is what counts as a “relevant gas fitting”. HSE’s guidance draws the line clearly:

• A gas appliance or pipework used exclusively in a part of the premises occupied for non-residential purposes falls outside this specific landlord duty.
• A gas appliance or pipework that serves residential accommodation, even if it is physically installed in a non-domestic part of the building, such as a shared boiler in a commercial basement heating a flat above, is a relevant gas fitting and falls squarely within it.

If you let out commercial premises with no residential element at all, regulation 36 does not apply to you directly, though your general employer’s duty under regulation 35 still does if you or your staff work in that space. If any part of what you let, or what you supply gas to, is lived in, treat the 12-month check as a hard legal deadline, not a recommendation.

What about ventilation?

Poor ventilation is one of the most common, and most preventable, causes of carbon monoxide building up around a gas appliance. HSE’s guidance for employers is explicit that you must check all rooms containing gas appliances have adequate ventilation, and avoid blocking air inlets or obstructing flues and chimneys, whether that is with stock, furniture, or building work. This sits alongside, not instead of, having appliances properly installed and maintained.

Do you need a carbon monoxide alarm?

The Gas Safety Regulations themselves do not set out a blanket legal requirement for carbon monoxide alarms at every business premises. Gas Safe Register nonetheless treats them as an important extra layer of protection alongside proper installation, maintenance and inspection by a qualified engineer, particularly anywhere gas appliances are in regular use, such as a commercial kitchen. If you are choosing one, look for a Kitemark to the relevant British Standard, and ask a Gas Safe registered engineer for advice if you are unsure which alarm suits your premises.

What should you do if you suspect a gas leak?

1. Turn off the gas supply at the meter, if it is safe to reach it.
2. Put out any naked flames and do not smoke or strike matches.
3. Do not operate electrical switches, including light switches, since a spark can ignite escaping gas.
4. Open windows and doors to ventilate the area.
5. Call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999, which operates around the clock across Great Britain.

Get everyone out of the immediate area while you wait for a response, and do not attempt to investigate the source of a leak yourself.

Does it matter whether you own or rent your premises?

Your own duty as an employer does not depend on who owns the building. Regulation 35 applies to “any gas appliance, installation pipework or flue installed at any place of work under his control”, which covers a tenant business running its day-to-day operations just as much as an owner-occupier. If you lease your premises, you and your landlord can end up with overlapping responsibilities: your landlord may hold the regulation 36 duty if any part of the building is lived in, while you separately hold the regulation 35 duty for the workplace you actually run, regardless of who is on the lease for the gas supply itself. Sort out in your lease, in writing, who arranges and pays for checks and servicing, rather than assuming it is automatically the landlord’s job because they own the building. If you are moving into new premises, our guide to change of tenancy covers the wider process of taking over an existing energy supply, which is a useful moment to also confirm the gas safety history of the site you are moving into.

What about LPG and mobile catering?

Gas safety duties are not limited to mains natural gas or to fixed premises. A market stall, food truck, or any business using LPG (liquid petroleum gas) cylinders still falls under the same Gas Safety Regulations, and gas work on that equipment still needs to be carried out by someone in the right competent class for the job, typically an engineer registered for LPG and catering equipment specifically rather than mains gas alone. If your business operates this way, check that any engineer you use is registered for the LPG and mobile catering categories relevant to your setup, not just gas work generally, using the same ID card and licence number check described above.

Setting up gas safety at a new site

If you are taking on a brand new gas connection rather than an existing supply, gas safety needs to be built in from the point of installation, not added afterwards. The installation itself must be carried out and signed off by someone in the right competent class, and it is worth agreeing a first safety check and service schedule with your engineer as part of getting the site operational, rather than treating it as a separate task to arrange later.

Who actually enforces all this?

The Health and Safety Executive, and in some cases your local authority, can take enforcement action against an employer who fails to meet these duties, and inspectors do treat gas and carbon monoxide risks seriously given how quickly a failure can turn fatal rather than just costly. In practice, most businesses never encounter enforcement directly, because a competent Gas Safe registered engineer, a sensible check schedule and basic ventilation checks cover the underlying duty comfortably. The regulations described in this guide are less a bureaucratic burden and more a description of what any responsibly run premises with a gas supply would be doing anyway.

Keeping the right records

Even outside the strict landlord duty above, keeping your own record of gas safety checks, who carried them out, their Gas Safe registration number, and what was found, is worth doing for every business. It demonstrates you are meeting your regulation 35 duty if anything is ever queried, and it gives you a clear service history to hand to a new engineer, a landlord, or a buyer if your premises change hands or you are closing the business down.

If you are setting up a new business and want to understand your obligations from day one, our guide to business energy for a new business covers the wider picture beyond gas safety specifically, and our guide to business gas meter types explains what kind of meter you are likely to have on site.

Once your gas safety arrangements are in order, you can compare business energy quotes with us to check you are on a competitive rate too.

Frequently asked questions