Is it difficult to get CORGI?

[paul69uk]

Hi,

I run a small company and cooperate with my friend who is a plumber. Unfortunately, we cannot feel totally independent as he has not got CORGI yet. Every time we install gas we need to have it signed off by another plumber, who is CORGI registered.

The problem is my friend's English is not very good. The question is how the tests and exams look. Is there any possibilty that the sets of questions for the test are available beforehand and he could learn and memorize them before taking exams?

What is the best way for him to pass them as soon as possible?

He's got all the possible certificates from Poland which are recognized in European Union, but not in the UK.

Please adivse.

Cheers,

Paul

 

[oilman]

Several issues here, some which may cause some heated discussion, but the UK, surprisingly, IS in the European Union. Therefore, write to your MP and get some questions asked. Either people can work in any country, or they can't. Doctors from Spain can work in the UK, so why not Polish plumbers?

 

[croydoncorgi]

The key question for your 'friend' is whether he can read easily and understand completely what is written IN ENGLISH in the manuals for the appliances and gas systems he is to work on.

If he can't do that, he is BY DEFINITION 'unsafe' and therefore COULD NOT be registered with CORGI. If anyone (including CORGI) wants to dispute this - feel free. Although the relevant Act governing gas safety stupidly uses the words 'competent person' to describe someone able to work on gas, I'd have thought inability to read instructions and technical data was an obvious example of 'incompetence' in this context.

 

[ChrisR]

Either people can work in any country, or they can't.

HSE regulations are country-specific, I believe.

Some native English-speakers' language comprehension isn't up to dealing with some of the laws and regs, and they fail ACS as a result.

 

[Agile]

Paul, said:-

"""Every time we install gas we need to have it signed off by another plumber, who is CORGI registered. """

I do have to advise you that CORGI do NOT permit any registered person to "sign off" gas work done by a non registered person.

If you dont agree with me that what you have been doing is illegal then please post or email me ( from my profile ) with your details and I will ask CORGI to investigate.

I know from experience that you will not do that because you already know that what you have been doing is illegal!

Tony

 

[ollski]

I do have to advise you that CORGI do NOT permit any registered person to "sign off" gas work done by a non registered person.

Can't see what on earth that would have to do with corgi, if an rgi has checked and passed the work and put his name to it.

 

[Paul Barker]

on the idea of getting the question sin advance, the whole point of being examined withion a time frame is that a certain amount of the information required must be imediately in the consciousness of the examinee. In this way the sstem works, because people who son 't have sufficient working knowledge to answer sufficient percentage of questions correctly from memory run out of time. That is the mechanism by which the dross is sifted out.

With regard to dissability, if non English comprehension is a dissability, you are entightled to claim a dissability, but if you pass you will only be registered to work within the scope of that dissability. What that hypothetically would mean in your friend's case is that he would only be qualified to work in the presence of an interpreter, in reality it is a farce that would not get past home base.

My advice is send him to Scarborough to work for free for 6 months and if he can comprehend manufacturers instrauctions me, the corgi manual, Gas Safety Installation and Use Regulations, building regs and part p electrical, and can communicate to members of the public competently in aspects of gas safety I will put him through his acs.

 

[corgiman]

I do have to advise you that CORGI do NOT permit any registered person to "sign off" gas work done by a non registered person.

Can't see what on earth that would have to do with corgi, if an rgi has checked and passed the work and put his name to it.

must agreee with oll

as i said before on another thread, do you ask whether every boiler you work has been installed by a RGI and then insist on proof of this agile?

what happens if the client cannot produce this info? do you walk away?

no you work on it, so is it that the regs are happy for you to work on a boiler that is four years old that wasnt installed by a RGI but do state that you should not work on a new installation that has been installed by a non RGI?

I have read them quite thoroughly and found nothing to support this.

also I could not find where it states that a RGI MUST NOT commision and verify work undertaken by a non RGI?

 

[Agile]

All of you are missing the important words "sign off" !

CORGI are adament that we must not fill in a Benchmark Certificate or Notify them of a boiler we did not personally install ( meaning the essent aspects, bracket, flue, gas and commissioning ).

Of course we can inspect and commission any boiler and complete the Comissioning part of the Benchmark and we can issue LSCs and Safety Certs but we CANNOT fill in the benchmark or notify if it was fitted by a non RGI.

Tony

 

[corgiman]

All of you are missing the important words "sign off" !

CORGI are adament that we must not fill in a Benchmark Certificate or Notify them of a boiler we did not personally install ( meaning the essent aspects, bracket, flue, gas and commissioning ).

Of course we can inspect and commission any boiler and complete the Comissioning part of the Benchmark and we can issue LSCs and Safety Certs but we CANNOT fill in the benchmark or notify if it was fitted by a non RGI.

Tony

so why does the bench mark have seperate sections for the installer and the commisioning engineer if not to enable an non RGI to install and have the work verified by a RGI?

Not picking a fight or anything just find this an interesting discussion

 

[Agile]

Ask CORGI and post the answer here!

Sometimes a CORGI will install a boiler and another, possibly specialist, will commission hence the benchmark headings.

I think that Worcester are offering a free commission aren't they? Thats because so many installers are not properly commissioning their boilers.

To properly install and commission a band A boiler a FGA is required. How many installers even have one?

Tony

 

[corgiman]

Well I have just spoken to CORGI

And they say that GSIU regs state that any gas pipe and or appliance MUST be installed by a RGI, In the instance of attending a site to commision an appliance and you find out that it was not installed by an RGI the RGI must issue a RIDDOR report to the health and safety, but if the appliance meets the MI then the appliance can and should be left on.

This also should also be the case when discovering that an existing appliance that you have serviced/repaired has been installed by a Non RGI.

The Tech Advisor at CORGI went on at great lengths about the need to confirm to the GNS but when i mentioned that as this is a requirement of the building regs and NOT the GSIU regs and that the building regs state that the installer must be porven competent but does not mention the need to belong to CORGI he went a bit quite and droned on about the GSIU regs again.

So I am wrong according to GSIU regs but not the Building Regs, honestly if you got Tony Blair and CORGI together and gave em a pub full off booze they would not be able to organise a **** up.

But I bow to Tony (as per) and will be informing CORGI and the HSE of the mulitude of large companies that use Non RGI's to install and have a single RGI running around signing them off

Am sure they will leap into instant action.............NOT

 

[ollski]

lol corgi are so far up there own backsides.....the rules are seldom enforced by anyone except in the worst cases and there are so many rules and regulations that nobody knows the official line so just ignore it altogether. If you get a job to sign off an installation and the householder told you it was done by an rgi who has since disappeared we can do it and if they tell us they did it themselves we can't...is that the gist of it?

 

[corgiman]

thats about the size of it

crap aint it.

 

[ollski]

cm I think I have probably fallen into the majority of rgis who don't really care and have work to do rather than bullshit to brush up on.