©
EUROHEAT
DISTRIBUTORS (H.B.S) LTD.April 2007
E&OE Instructions Part Number IN1190 Ed B
H11##0105A
4
Competent Persons Regulations and Oil Technicians in
England and Wales
The Government have introduced the Competent Persons Scheme in England and Wales to
give an advantage to operatives within the Construction Industry who are members of bodies
that implement approved systems of competence assessment and inspection. It is designed to
remove some of the burden of supervising work away from the Local Authority Building Control
Departments, so that they can concentrate on tracking down and prosecuting the ‘cowboy’
element within the construction industry.
For the oil industry, the OFTEC Registration Scheme has been chosen to define competence.
The Building Act of 1984 requires a person carrying out certain types of building work to give
building notice or Building Regulation approval to Building Control. This will involve payment of
a fee to the Local Authority.
As from 1st April 2002, an amendment to Regulation 12 of the Building Regulations which
covers Combustion Appliances came into force. This exempts OFTEC Registered Installation,
Commissioning and Servicing Technicians and Tank Installation Technicians from the need to
give notice and pay a fee when carrying out new installation work, replacement work or making
a major change to a system, in the areas covered by their class of registration. Registered
Technicians are required to keep a record of any work they undertake. OFTEC provides approved
control documents for installation work (CD/10) and commissioning work (CD/11).
It should be noted that the Building Regulations define installation work as including
commissioning. An oil installation will, therefore, require to be both installed and commissioned
by a suitably qualified OFTEC Technician, if the need to apply for a notice and pay a fee is to
be avoided. The table overleaf shows which categories of technician can undertake the various
types of work covered by the new Regulations.
