Eight of 10 owners might have said their cat preferred Whiskas but a whopping nine out of 10 gas engineers have declared that they’re asked for their Gas Safe ID card yearly (or less), according to the results of a Twitter poll run by @GasManGod.
Of the 338 respondents, only 10% stated that they were asked to produce the card monthly or more often – an outcome that casts a shadow over the effectiveness of Gas Safe’s message to consumers.
The poll is even more damning than that carried out by @ExpertTradesmen in February, in which more than half of the 109 respondents declared they were asked nothing about their qualifications. 
It follows hot on the heels of news from Gas Safe Register that almost five million people across the UK are employing illegal gas engineers who aren’t properly qualified. Research from GSR also revealed that 19% of people did not ask to check a tradesperson’s ID before allowing them to work on a gas appliance.
Our view
Clearly there is a huge discrepancy between Gas Safe’s figures and the results of the Twitter poll. So which is closer to the reality of the situation? Maybe there are two questions to answer here:
- Firstly, as a customer, would you be prepared to be economical with the truth in order to appear not to be endangering the lives of your family, friends and neighbours?
- Secondly, as an installer, would you have reason to lie about how often your customers ask to see your ID?
Of course there will be anomalies on both sides but to our mind, the answers are essentially a straightforward ‘yes’ and ‘no’.
Have your say!
Add your vote to our poll and let us know how often you’re asked for your Gas Safe ID:
