Barry Sheerman MP launches Gas Safety Week 2016 in Parliament
Barry Sheerman MP, Co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Carbon Monoxide Group, hosted the parliamentary launch of Gas Safety Week.
Barry Sheerman MP launched the sixth annual Gas Safety Week in parliament, to raise awareness on the importance of regular appliance servicing. The event was attended by various stakeholders from government, the energy industry and the third sector, and featured spoken contributions from Mr Sheerman’s fellow APPCOG co-chair Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, Chris Bielby MBE of the Gas Industry Safety Group, Jonathan Samuel the Chief Executive of the Gas Safe Register, and Gordon Samuel of the Katie Haines Memorial Trust (KHMT). The KHMT additionally launched their new video at the event.
This sixth annual campaign, coordinated by the Gas Safe Register, see organisations across the UK working together to raise awareness of the dangers of poorly maintained gas appliances, which cause gas leaks, fires, explosions and carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning. The campaign aims to remind the public to have their gas appliances checked, as we head into winter and begin to switch our heating on.
At the launch event, Mr Sheerman thanked the various charities that are working to reduce the number of CO-related incidents for their tireless contributions to the policy area, including the Katie Haines Memorial Trust, the Dominic Rodgers Trust, CO Gas Safety and the CO Awareness charity.
There are around 40 confirmed deaths caused by CO poisoning in England and Wales every year and inspections conducted by the Gas Safe Register last year revealed that 1 in 5 homes in the East of England contained an unsafe gas appliance. In the report Carbon Monoxide: From Awareness to Action (2015), it was identified by the All-Party Parliamentary Carbon Monoxide Group that “the risk of CO being produced at levels dangerous to humans is relatively low”, when appliances are serviced regularly by a “competent person”. With 20 deaths and 1,000 gas-related injuries in the last three years , it’s vital that people make sure their gas appliances are safety checked every year by a registered engineer. Anyone working on gas appliances while not being Gas Safe registered, is working illegally.
Jonathan Samuel, managing director for Gas Safe Register, said: “We know from our own investigations that one in six gas appliances in the UK are unsafe , meaning far too many people are victims of preventable gas related incidents. It’s great to have the support of Barry Sheerman MP for Gas Safety Week 2016 so that we can work together to raise public awareness of gas safety and reduce the number of dangerous gas appliances lurking in the homes of the UK’s 23 million gas consumers."
