Commercial Gas
Certificate (CP42)
Mandatory annual safety checks for restaurants, takeaways, hotels, and commercial plant rooms. Keep your kitchen compliant and your staff safe.
- ComCert Registered Engineers
- Insurance Compliant
- Out-of-hours Available
- Interlock Testing Included
Commercial Rates
Quick Summary (AI & Voice Search Answers)
Commercial Gas Certificate Pricing
Transparent rates for your business. Prices subject to VAT.
| Service | Price (Inc VAT) | Action |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Gas Appliance | £149.99* | |
| 2 Gas Appliances | £199.99* | |
| 3 Gas Appliances | £229.99* |
Your Commercial Gas Certificate Guide
Everything a London restaurant, takeaway, hotel or facilities manager needs to know about the CP42 gas safety record, in the order people usually ask it. Jump straight to the part you need.
What is a Commercial Gas Certificate (CP42)?
A Commercial Catering Gas Safety Certificate (CP42) is a legal requirement for any business operating a commercial kitchen. It proves that your gas appliances, extraction systems, and interlocks have been inspected by a qualified Gas Safe engineer.
Under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, business owners have a duty to ensure gas equipment is maintained in a safe condition. An annual inspection is the standard way to demonstrate compliance to your insurer and the local authority Environmental Health Officer (EHO).
The commercial gas certificate is the written record of that inspection. It lists every appliance tested, the readings taken, the condition of the pipework and ventilation, and the engineer’s registration details — which is exactly what an insurer or an inspector asks to see.
Appliance Check
Testing cookers, fryers, ranges, and combi ovens for safe combustion.
Extraction / Canopy
Ensuring the extraction system is removing fumes effectively (CO2 levels).
Interlock System
Verifying the gas supply cuts off if the ventilation system fails.
Pipework Integrity
Pressure testing the supply pipework for any potential leaks.
Business Critical
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01
Insurance
Most commercial policies are void without a valid gas certificate.
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02
Staff Safety
Protect employees from Carbon Monoxide poisoning and explosions.
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03
EHO Inspections
The first document a Health & Safety officer will ask to see.
Warning
Using a standard domestic gas engineer for commercial catering equipment is illegal and will invalidate your certificate. You must use a ComCat registered engineer.
Why Your Business Needs a Commercial Gas Certificate
A commercial gas certificate is the cheapest piece of paperwork in a professional kitchen and the one that carries the most weight. Catering equipment runs harder, hotter and longer than anything in a domestic property: a six-burner range, a twin-basket fryer and a combi oven can be lit for fourteen hours a day, seven days a week, in a room full of grease, steam and moving staff. Components that would last a decade at home wear out in a season.
The first reason is people. Carbon monoxide has no smell and no colour, and a blocked flue or a starved burner produces it quietly while a kitchen brigade is busy doing something else. An annual CP42 inspection checks combustion performance and ventilation together, which is the only reliable way to know that what the appliances are producing is actually leaving the building.
The second reason is money. Most commercial property and business interruption policies contain a condition requiring gas equipment to be maintained and inspected by a competent person. If an insurer asks for the current record after an incident and there is nothing to hand, the claim conversation becomes very short. Landlords letting a fitted commercial unit face the same problem in reverse, because the tenant’s certificate protects the building owner too.
The third reason is the visit nobody schedules. An Environmental Health Officer arriving for a food hygiene inspection will routinely ask for the gas safety record alongside the food safety management system, and a missing record colours the whole visit. Producing a current document takes ten seconds and closes the subject.
The last reason is simply that faults found early are cheap. A worn thermocouple, a perished flexible hose or a canopy that no longer draws are all small jobs on a planned visit and expensive emergencies when they fail on a Friday night in service. Booking the inspection during a quiet period costs a fraction of closing the kitchen.
The Inspection Process
Professional service designed to minimize kitchen downtime.
Site Survey
Engineer assesses kitchen layout, ventilation, and access points.
Tightness Test
Pressure testing the entire installation to verify no gas leaks.
Equipment Check
Individual safety performance tests on all cooking appliances.
Interlock Test
Verifying the gas safety interlock system functions correctly.
Do I need a Gas Interlock System?
A gas interlock system connects your kitchen extraction fan to the gas supply valve. If the fan fails or is turned off, the interlock cuts the gas supply to prevent the build-up of carbon monoxide.
Interlocks are the single most common failure point we find on a CP42 inspection, usually because a panel was bypassed during a busy period and never reinstated. Testing them against BS 6173 is included in every CP42 we issue.
Legal Requirement
Required for most new commercial kitchens or if you install Category B equipment (like Combi Ovens/Fryers).
Maintenance
We test the sensors, panel, and solenoid valve to ensure they engage correctly in an emergency.
BS 6173 Standard Compliance
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01
Ventilation
Extraction and make-up air are assessed together, not in isolation.
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02
Interlock
Sensors, control panel and solenoid valve are operated and proved.
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03
Commissioning
Appliances are checked against the standard they were installed to.
Bypassed interlocks
An interlock that has been bypassed during a busy service and never reinstated is one of the most common reasons a commercial kitchen fails its annual inspection.
Commercial Gas Certificate Law: What UK Businesses Must Do
The law behind your CP42
Commercial gas work in Great Britain is governed by the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998. The Regulations place duties on anyone who installs, services or uses gas equipment in the course of a business, and they require that gas appliances, pipework and flues are maintained in a safe condition and that the work is carried out by a person who is registered with the official gas registration body.
Sitting above that is the general duty in the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of employees and of anyone else affected by the business. In a commercial kitchen those two duties meet in the same place: equipment that is demonstrably safe, and a written record proving somebody competent said so.
The Regulations do not print a single renewal date on a wall chart, but the accepted industry standard — and what insurers, licensing teams and environmental health officers expect to see — is a documented inspection at least every twelve months. The Health and Safety Executive publishes practical guidance for catering businesses covering appliances, ventilation and interlocks in its gas safety in catering pages, and it is the clearest free summary of what good practice looks like.
The technical benchmark for the installation itself is BS 6173, the British Standard for the installation and maintenance of gas-fired catering appliances. It is the document an engineer works to when deciding whether ventilation is adequate, whether an interlock is required and how appliances should be commissioned.
Gas Safe commercial tickets: what your engineer must hold
Every engineer working on gas in Great Britain must be on the Gas Safe Register, but registration alone is not enough for catering equipment. The register records individual qualifications, usually called tickets, and each ticket covers a defined category of appliance. A CP42 is only valid if the engineer who issued it held the right ones on the day.
- Core commercial catering (COMCAT). The COMCAT categories cover the common classes of catering appliance — ranges and boiling tops, boiling and steaming equipment, deep fat fryers, and ovens and grills. An engineer may hold some categories and not others.
- Commercial heating and plant. Boilers, warm air units and plant room equipment sit under separate commercial non-domestic categories, not under catering ones.
- Mobile catering (CMC). Burger vans, street food trailers and other mobile units are a distinct discipline with their own qualification.
- Ventilation and interlocks. Testing an interlock properly requires the engineer to understand the extraction system as well as the gas train.
You can check any engineer’s registration and the exact categories they hold on the Gas Safe Register website before they start work. Our engineers arrive with their card and we record the relevant category numbers on the certificate itself, so the document stands up to scrutiny months later.
Who Needs a Commercial Gas Certificate?
Restaurants, takeaways, hotels and plant rooms
If gas is burned on your premises in the course of a business, the duty applies to you. In practice that means restaurants, cafes, takeaways, pubs and bars, hotel and school kitchens, care homes, hospital and staff canteens, bakeries, dark kitchens and event caterers. It also covers commercial plant rooms serving offices, retail units and blocks of flats, where the equipment is a boiler rather than a range.
Responsibility usually follows the equipment rather than the freehold. A tenant operating a fitted kitchen normally holds the duty for the appliances they use, while the building owner keeps responsibility for the incoming supply, the meter and any shared plant. Commercial leases often make this explicit, and it is worth reading yours before an inspection rather than after one.
Property managers and landlords with mixed portfolios usually need more than one document. A residential block above a restaurant will need annual landlord gas safety records (CP12) for the flats and a CP42 for the commercial kitchen below, and the electrical side is covered separately by a commercial EICR. Where a premises licence or a fire strategy is involved, a current fire risk assessment is normally requested at the same time.
What a commercial gas certificate costs
Commercial pricing is driven by the number of gas appliances rather than by the floor area of the kitchen, because each appliance is tested and recorded individually. Our rates start at £149.99 for a single gas appliance, £199.99 for two appliances and £229.99 for three, all inclusive, with the certification document included. Additional appliances beyond three are charged separately and a £15.00 congestion charge applies where relevant.
Counting appliances is simpler than it sounds: each independently supplied and independently isolated unit counts as one. A six-burner range with an oven underneath is a single appliance; a range, a fryer and a separate salamander grill are three. If you are unsure what your kitchen will come to, send us a photograph of the gas train and we will confirm the price before the engineer is dispatched, or book your inspection online and we will adjust it on site if the count differs.
Comprehensive Commercial Gas Certificate Checklist
Our engineers follow a strict protocol to ensure your business remains open and safe.
Gas Installation
Gas tightness test on full system · Emergency Isolation Valve access · Purge points and test nipples · Pipework support and identification.
Catering Equipment
Flame failure devices (Thermocouples) · Burner pressure and gas rate · Restraining cables on mobile units · Injectors and flexible hose condition.
Ventilation & Safety
Canopy draw and performance · Interlock system functionality · CO2 and Carbon Monoxide levels · Make-up air supply adequacy.
CP42, CP12 and Getting Your Kitchen Ready
CP42 vs CP12: which record do you need?
The two documents are often confused because both are gas safety records, but they answer different questions. A CP12 is the landlord gas safety record for a domestic property: the annual check a landlord must obtain for the boiler, hob and any other gas appliance in a home they let. A CP42 is the commercial catering gas safety record, and it covers the appliances, ventilation and interlock arrangements of a working kitchen.
The differences show up in the detail. A CP12 records a small number of domestic appliances against domestic standards. A CP42 records burner pressures and gas rates for each catering appliance, the performance of the extraction canopy, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide readings taken in the kitchen, the make-up air supply, and whether the gas interlock isolates the supply when ventilation stops. It is a longer document because a commercial kitchen is a more complicated environment.
Some premises need both. A pub with letting rooms, a takeaway with a flat above it or a care home with a commercial kitchen and domestic-style heating will each hold a CP42 for the catering equipment and a CP12 for the residential appliances. If that describes your building, we can complete both in one visit and issue both records the same day.
Mobile catering units and street food trailers
Burger vans, coffee trailers, pizza trucks and festival units are inspected under the mobile catering discipline rather than the fixed-premises one, because the risks are different. The gas is bottled LPG rather than piped natural gas, the appliances move every time the vehicle does, and the enclosure is small enough that a leak becomes dangerous quickly.
An inspection on a mobile unit covers the cylinder storage and ventilation, the regulator and changeover valve, the condition and date of the hoses, the restraint of appliances against movement, the flame supervision devices, and the low-level and high-level ventilation openings that keep the unit safe with a burner running. Event organisers and local authority licensing teams routinely ask for the record before a pitch is confirmed, so it is worth having in the folder rather than in a drawer at home.
Preparing your kitchen for the inspection
A little preparation turns a half-day visit into a ninety-minute one. The engineer needs to reach the gas meter and the emergency control valve, get behind mobile appliances far enough to see the connection and the restraint, and switch the extraction system on and off without stopping service.
- Clear access to the meter and the emergency control valve. Stock stacked in front of the meter cupboard is the single most common cause of a return visit.
- Let appliances cool. Combustion testing on a fryer that is still at temperature is unpleasant and less accurate.
- Have the interlock panel key available. Testing the interlock means operating the panel, not just looking at it.
- Keep previous paperwork to hand. The last certificate, any warning notices and the appliance manuals all shorten the visit.
- Book around service. The gas is off for roughly twenty to thirty minutes for the tightness test, so early mornings, afternoons between services and out-of-hours slots work best.
We hold priority slots for commercial clients and can work out of hours where a kitchen cannot lose trading time. Tell us your service pattern when you book and we will fit the visit around it.
What Happens If Your Commercial Gas Certificate Fails?
Immediately Dangerous and At Risk classifications
An unsatisfactory result is not a disaster, and it is more common in busy kitchens than most operators expect. Where an engineer finds a defect, the appliance or installation is classified according to the industry gas safety procedure. The two classifications that matter are Immediately Dangerous, meaning the equipment presents a danger to life or property if it is used or left connected, and At Risk, meaning one or more safety features are absent or defective and a fault could make the situation dangerous.
In either case the engineer will explain the finding, seek your permission to disconnect and cap off the affected appliance, and issue a warning notice describing what was found and why. Only the defective item is isolated; the rest of the kitchen normally keeps working, which is why a single failed fryer rarely closes a restaurant. If permission to disconnect is refused, the engineer is obliged to record that and, for an Immediately Dangerous situation, notify the gas emergency service.
The most frequent findings we see in London kitchens are simple ones: a failed flame supervision device on an ageing range, a perished or out-of-date flexible connection hose, missing restraint on a mobile appliance, an extraction canopy that no longer draws to specification, and an interlock that has been bypassed at some point and never reinstated.
Remedial work and re-certification
Because our engineers arrive with commercial spares on the van, a large share of defects are corrected on the same visit — hoses, thermocouples, test nipples and isolation valves are usually stock items. Where a part has to be ordered or a ventilation alteration is needed, we quote the work before we leave so you can weigh the cost against the trading impact rather than waiting for a report.
Once the remedial work is complete the affected appliances are retested and the record is reissued as satisfactory. There is no requirement to repeat the whole inspection from scratch if only one appliance was capped, which keeps the cost of putting things right proportionate.
Keep every certificate, warning notice and repair invoice together for at least two years. That folder is what turns a good kitchen into a demonstrably compliant one, and it is the difference between a five-minute conversation with an inspector and a long one. When your renewal comes round, book the next commercial gas certificate online and we will schedule it around your service.
Frequently Asked Questions
Clear answers about the CP42 record, ComCat qualifications and what happens on the day.
By law, you must have your commercial gas appliances and installation checked at least every 12 months. Your insurance policy may specify more frequent checks.
No. Engineers must hold specific 'ComCat' qualifications (e.g., ComCat 1 for ranges, ComCat 3 for fryers). Using an unqualified engineer is illegal and voids your insurance.
We usually need the gas to be off for about 20-30 minutes for the tightness test. Individual appliance tests can be done around your prep work, but we recommend booking out-of-hours or during quiet periods to minimize disruption.
If an appliance is dangerous, we must disconnect it ('Cap off'). We will issue a 'Warning Notice'. We can usually quote for and repair the fault to get you back up and running quickly.
Yes, we cover mobile catering units (burgers vans, street food trucks) under CMC (Commercial Mobile Catering) qualifications.
Our Accreditations
Recognized and certified by the UK's leading property safety bodies.
Keep your kitchen Cooking Safely.
Book your CP42 inspection today. We work around your service hours to keep your business running smoothly.
Commercial Gas Safety Certificate (CP42) Service Areas in London
We cover all 32 London boroughs, including North London, East London, South London, West London, and central districts. Fast dispatch for: