Industry Standard Update 102: The Gas Industry Unsafe Situations Procedure – IGEM/G/11

Date issued: 20 January 2021
This Industry Standard Update provides an overview and highlights areas of significant change in the recently published version of The Gas Industry Unsafe Situations Procedure – IGEM/G/11.

Introduction
On 15 January 2021, IGEM published a revision to The Gas Industry Unsafe Situations Procedure, IGEM/G/11⁽¹⁾(Communication 1840). The revised procedure supersedes The Gas Industry Unsafe Situations Procedure, IGEM/G/11 (Communication 1819)⁽²⁾, which has been withdrawn.

IGEM/G/11The Gas Industry Unsafe Situations Procedure is owned and published by IGEM. The requirements of this revised industry Procedure come into effect immediately.

To allow registered businesses time to implement the necessary processes and procedures and to carry out the necessary internal update training to reflect the technical requirements of the amended Procedure, Gas Safe Register will inspect to this version of the Procedure from 15 April 2021. However, this should not prevent businesses from applying the procedure sooner.

The following is a brief overview of the amendments to IGEM/G/11The Gas Industry Unsafe Situations Procedure.

General
IGEM/G/11has been revised throughout to update terms, references to legislation and other standards.

Section 1: Introduction
Clause 1.9 states that IGEM/G/11has been drawn up by the gas industry in order to assist competent engineers in meeting their legal duties in accordance with the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 (GSIUR) as amended and associated Approved Code of Practice and Guidance, and classify unsafe gas installations correctly.

The general principles of the Gas Industry Unsafe Situations Procedure (GIUSP) may be:

• Used as a guide to action in premises that fall outside the scope of GSIUR
• Used in geographical areas not covered by the GB edition of GIUSP, including Guernsey, Jersey, Isle of Man and Northern Ireland.

Section 2: Scope
Clause 2.2 states that the priority for gas engineers when encountering an unsafe situation is to safeguard life and property. It is essential that gas engineers are able to identify gas equipment that presents a danger or potential danger and take prompt corrective actions to eliminate such danger.

Section 4: Competencies
When applying the classifications used in IGEM/G/11, the competent engineer shall be able to justify their rationale based on the situation on site. The examples in this document are not intended to be exhaustive and/or definitive and the final decision in applying classifications lies solely with the competent engineer on site, following their site-specific risk assessment.

Clause 6: Dealing with unsafe situations
Clauses 6.1(e) and 6.2.1(e) include guidance to: ‘Complete a “warning notice” which shall emphasise the words “DANGER DO NOT USE”. Regardless of the format used, obtain a signature from the gas user/responsible person as both a record of receipt and understanding. Before leaving site, a copy shall be issued to the gas user/responsible person and you should keep a copy for your records. If no one is present, leave a copy on site to alert any future user to the danger.’

Clause 8: RIDDOR, unsafe gas work and theft of gas reporting
Clause 8.3 has been revised to ensure consistency with current legislation and states that RIDDOR Regulation 11(2) requires registered gas businesses/engineers to report any gas fittings (including appliances and flues or ventilation used with appliances) that are dangerous to such an extent they have caused or are likely to cause:

• Death
• Unconsciousness
• Taking a person to hospitaldue to the design, construction, manner of installation, modification, or incorrect servicing of the gas fitting that could or has resulted in an accidental leakage of gas, incomplete combustion of gas or inadequate removal of products of combustion of gas. This is commonly referred to as poor workmanship or design. A flowchart of the process is contained in Appendix 7.

Clause 8.5 has been added to detail how and when to report under RIDDOR.

Clause 8.6 has been included to provide guidance on how and to whom to report unsafe situations due to poor workmanship that are not reportable under RIDDOR.

Clause 8.7 provides guidance around the theft of gas.

Section 9: Table 1
Table 1 contains examples of the types of situation that are ID or AR. The table is not exhaustive and individual circumstances may require different actions to be taken.

Therefore, engineers shall exercise their engineering judgement and be able to justify their classification rationale based on the situation on site. Actions should be within their area of competence and, where there is doubt, seek further guidance.

A header added to each table page details RIDDOR requirements to be considered.

Revisions to Table 1:

Bibliography
(1) IGEM/G/11 The Gas Industry Unsafe Situations Procedure (Communication 1840)
(2) IGEM/G/11 The Gas Industry Unsafe Situations Procedure (Communication 1819)

You can download The Gas Industry Unsafe Situations Procedure here.