The information below is courtesy of VisitBritain.
A common question during the summer season is whether tourism operators need to have gas powered BBQs checked annually and be certified as “Gas Safe”, as is required for other gas appliances such as stoves and boilers.
The short answer to this is that you don’t have to get specific Gas Safe certification for gas BBQs, or other appliances such as gas heaters that run off a gas bottle.
The reason for this is that under The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, the definition of a gas appliance is:
“Gas appliance” means an appliance designed for use by a consumer of gas for heating, lighting, cooking or other purposes for which gas can be used but it does not include a portable or mobile appliance suppled with gas from a cylinder, or the cylinder, pipes and other fittings used for supplying gas to that appliance, save that, for the purposes of regulations 3, 35 and 36 of these Regulations, it does include a portable or mobile space heater supplied with gas from a cylinder, and the cylinder, pipes and other fittings used for supplying gas to that heater;
This means that appliances run off a gas bottle are exempt from the legislation and do no need annual Gas Safe certification. However, it is very important to note that regulation 35 still applies. This states that:
“It shall be the duty of every employer or self-employed person to ensure that any gas appliance, installation pipework or flue installed at any place of work under his control is maintained in a safe condition so as to prevent risk of injury to any person.”
This means that you still have a duty under law to make sure that any gas appliance is safe. The best way to do this is to include appliances such as gas BBQs and heaters in your mandatory Health and Safety assessment of the property.
This assessment should both identify the risk and outline the steps that you take to mitigate that risk, such as regular checks on the appliance’s connections, fittings and pipework. This checking does not need to be undertaken by someone who is Gas Safe registered but, if you had other gas appliances that needed checking, it would make sense to ask your Gas Safe contractor to look over your mobile appliances like BBQs and heaters while they are on the premises.
Finally, although you are not legally required to write down this health and safety assessment if you have fewer than five employees, smaller businesses are urged to undertake a written assessment so that they can prove that they were not negligent should there be an accident.
There is more information on legislation relating Product Safety in the Pink Book Online.