What is a competent person scheme, and which trades can certify their own work?

This is the route most householders actually meet, without knowing its name. Nobody applies to the council to have a boiler swapped or a socket added — the registered trade does it through their scheme. Understanding the mechanism matters because it tells you which two documents to insist on, and because the whole thing collapses if the person is not actually registered.

Safety

Step by step

1. Understand the mechanism.Government-authorised schemes assess and monitor members' competence in a defined type of work. A member may self-certify that their work complies with the building regulations and notify the local authority through the scheme, without a building control application.
2. Know which work it covers.Broadly: electrical installation work, gas appliance and heating work, replacement windows and external doors, oil and solid fuel appliances, some ventilation, plumbing and microgeneration. The exact scope varies by scheme.
3. Verify the registration before work starts.On the scheme's own public register, by name or number. For gas, the Gas Safe Register is the legal register and the check is non-negotiable. Never verify from a card alone, a website badge or a logo on a vehicle.
4. Check the registration covers the specific work.Registration is scoped. An electrician registered for domestic installation is not automatically registered for everything, and a gas engineer's card lists the appliance categories they hold on the back.
5. Expect two documents, not one.The tradesperson's own installation or commissioning certificate for the work, and the scheme's building regulations compliance certificate confirming it was notified. People routinely receive the first and never chase the second.
6. Know what to do if there is no scheme route.Work outside any scheme, or done by someone not registered, has to go through building control by application instead — and it must be arranged before the work, not afterwards.
7. Note the position outside England and Wales.Scotland operates its own certification schemes for construction and design, approved by Scottish Ministers, working alongside the building warrant system. Northern Ireland has its own arrangements. Do not assume an English scheme name applies.
8. File both documents with the deeds.This is the paperwork that answers sale enquiries about electrics, heating and windows, and it is much easier to collect on the day than to reconstruct in five years.

Tips

• Scheme registration is a competence check on a defined type of work. It is not a general guarantee of quality across everything a trade does, and it does not vouch for their pricing, timekeeping or the plastering.
• If a tradesperson says the notification is not needed for a job that is plainly controlled work, treat that as a serious signal and check the register yourself.
• Some schemes also operate a complaints or workmanship route for their members' work. It is worth knowing which scheme you are dealing with before there is a problem.

Common mistakes

• Accepting a card or a website logo as proof — Cards can be out of date and logos are trivially copied. The public register is the only source that is current, and it takes under a minute.
• Not chasing the scheme certificate — The installation certificate proves the work was done to standard; the scheme certificate proves it was notified. Sale enquiries ask for the second one.

Questions people ask