Where the kitchen fitter's job stops and someone else's starts
Fitting the cabinets, hanging the doors and templating the worktop is one job, carried out under the contract you sign with your kitchen fitter. Moving a gas point, adding a circuit, or changing the structure of the room is a different matter, governed by its own registration scheme or notification system.
Gas work
Connecting or moving a gas hob, or doing any work on the pipework that feeds it, has to be carried out by someone on the Gas Safe Register. A kitchen fitter who is not on that register cannot do this work legally, whatever has been agreed. The certificate the engineer leaves at the end of the job is the record you would need if the work is ever questioned, so keep it with the rest of the paperwork from the fit.
Electrical work
Adding a new circuit, moving a socket, or connecting a new point to the consumer unit in the kitchen usually counts as notifiable work under Part P of the Building Regulations. It has to be either carried out by someone registered with a competent person scheme or notified to building control separately. Replacing a socket on an existing circuit, by contrast, generally does not need either.
Building control
Knocking through a wall, moving drainage, or extending the kitchen into another room can bring building control into the project on its own terms, apart from anything the kitchen contract covers. That paperwork matters later: a buyer's solicitor or a mortgage lender can ask to see it when the house is sold or remortgaged, long after the fitter has finished and moved on.
Ask early in the job which of these apply, and who is arranging the certificate for each one, before the units go in and the walls are closed up again. A duct run for a cooker hood can raise the same questions where it passes through an external wall; see Cooker Hoods: Extraction Rates, Noise at Every Speed and What Part F Requires.
What needs sign-off, and who can do it
A kitchen refit in England runs through three separate checks: whether the job needs a Gas Safe registered engineer, whether the electrical work has to be notified under Part P, and whether the work triggers a carbon monoxide alarm. The steps below run through them in the order a buyer usually meets them.
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Is a gas appliance being fitted, moved or reconnected?
Any work on a gas hob, a gas cooker point or the pipework feeding it falls under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998. Only an engineer on the Gas Safe Register can legally carry out or check that work, wherever in the UK the kitchen is.
Yes, gas work is involvedThe engineer needs to be Gas Safe registered for that particular type of work, and carries an ID card you can ask to see before anything starts.
No gas work is involvedThe gas rule doesn't apply, but the kitchen's electrical work still needs checking against Part P, which is the next question.
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Does the electrical work add a circuit or replace the consumer unit?
Under Approved Document P, kitchen electrical work becomes notifiable when it adds a new circuit, such as a dedicated cooker circuit, or when it replaces the consumer unit. Notifiable work has to be reported to building control, either directly or through an electrician registered with a competent person scheme.
Yes, a new circuit or consumer unitThe work is notifiable. An electrician on a competent person scheme can self-certify it and notify building control for you; otherwise, you apply to building control before work starts.
No, existing circuits are being reusedThe work doesn't need notifying, but it still has to meet BS 7671, the IET Wiring Regulations, and a competent electrician should be the one doing it.
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Is a gas appliance being installed or a flue affected?
Fitting a new gas hob or gas cooker, or disturbing the flue of an existing gas appliance, changes how combustion products are managed in that room. Approved Document J is the Building Regulations guidance that covers this, and it's the reference point for whether a carbon monoxide alarm needs fitting.
Gas appliance installed or flue disturbedA carbon monoxide alarm needs fitting in the room, positioned as set out in the manufacturer's instructions. The Gas Safe engineer doing the work can confirm what's needed for that specific appliance.
No gas appliance or flue workThe kitchen refit itself doesn't trigger a carbon monoxide alarm requirement, though any gas appliance elsewhere in the home is unaffected by it either way.
Local authority building control can confirm whether a specific job needs notifying, and the Gas Safe Register lets you check an engineer's registration before work starts.
Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland each set their own rules
If your kitchen refit is in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, gas, electrics and building control follow a different rulebook to the one used in England, even though the underlying safety concern is the same: a hob needs proper ventilation and a new circuit needs proper certification wherever the kitchen sits. Building control has been a devolved matter for some years now, so each nation runs its own system.
Wales
Wales sets and updates its own Building Regulations separately from England, through the Welsh Government. If your job needs building control sign-off, a new gas supply, a structural opening, or notifiable electrical work, it is checked against the Welsh version of the requirement.
Scotland
Scotland works through the Scottish Building Standards system. Compliance is usually confirmed through a certificate from an approved certifier of design or construction, or through a building warrant and completion certificate issued by the local authority, so the paperwork trail looks different from the notification route a fitter might be used to in England.
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland has its own Building Regulations and its own building control system, run locally. Gas and electrical safety in a kitchen refit are checked against that separate framework, and the competent person schemes a fitter or installer needs to belong to can differ from the rest of the UK.
What counts as notifiable work, and which certificate covers it, is reviewed from time to time in each nation, so it is worth checking the current position before work starts. Confirm with whichever of these applies to your job:
- The local authority building control department, for a job in Wales
- Local Authority Building Standards Scotland, for a job in Scotland
- Building Control Northern Ireland, for a job in Northern Ireland
Ask them directly which certificate or notification your particular job needs before your fitter starts.
Know which trades need to sign off your kitchen
Gas, electrics and building control sit outside your fitter's own work, and getting the right person to certify each one is what makes the rest of the job count.