As part of Gas Safety Week (14 to 20 September 2026), the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has revealed that since the beginning of 2025, seventeen people have been convicted for carrying out gas work illegally. By comparison, there were three convictions in the year 2022/23 and four in 2023/24.
Over the past five years, HSE has successfully investigated and prosecuted dozens of defendants for breaching gas safety laws by working on gas appliances without being registered with Gas Safe Register.
Unqualified gas work can have fatal consequences. Poorly installed or serviced boilers, cookers and fires can cause gas leaks, explosions, fires and carbon monoxide poisoning — a silent killer that claims lives every year.
Gas Safety Week, now in its fourteenth year, is a national campaign bringing together the gas industry, local authorities and landlords to raise awareness of the importance of gas safety.
HSE is advising the public that it takes just seconds to verify an engineer’s credentials at www.gassaferegister.co.uk or by calling 0800 408 5500, or they can ask to see a gas engineer’s Gas Safe ID card.
HSE’s principal inspector of Gas Safety, Steve Critchlow, says:
“Gas Safety Week is the right time to remind people just how serious the risks of illegal gas work can be – and the rising number of convictions of rogue traders carrying out unregistered gas work should be a warning to everyone.
“Temperatures are going down and bills are going up, but cutting corners when it comes to getting your gas appliances properly serviced by a registered professional could be a fatal mistake.
“Uncontrolled gas leaks can cause fires, explosions, and carbon monoxide poisoning; and even though the gas industry has an excellent safety record, every tragic incident is one too many.
“As people start thinking about their heating ahead of winter, it’s exactly the right time to say: check your engineer is on the Gas Safe Register before you let them anywhere near your gas appliances. If they’re not on the register, don’t let them through the door.
“If you think you’ve been the victim of a rogue gas trader, report it straight away; HSE can investigate and prosecute unregistered gas fitters who put the public in harm’s way”.
