Gas safety policies and procedures

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.24.035934

I note you seek access to the following information:

Metropolitan Police regarding their policies and procedures related to handling gas appliances and the actions of their officers in such situations:

1. What are the specific guidelines and protocols in place for Metropolitan Police officers when encountering gas appliances connected to the national grid during the course of their duties?
2. Are Metropolitan Police officers authorized or instructed to tamper with or adjust gas appliances connected to the national grid under any circumstances? If so, under what conditions and with what training or qualifications?
3. What are the standard procedures for Metropolitan Police officers when they encounter damaged or unsafe gas appliances in a property they are attending? Are they required to call a Gas Safe engineer or take any other specific actions to ensure the safety of the property and its occupants?
4. How does the Metropolitan Police ensure that its officers are adequately informed and trained to recognise and respond to potential safety hazards related to gas appliances and the national grid?
5. How does the Metropolitan Police handle situations where their officers may have inadvertently caused damage to a gas appliance or left a property with a gas appliance in an unsafe condition? What follow-up actions or responsibilities do the officers have in such cases?

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full.

Please find below information pursuant to your request above.

Q1 - What are the specific guidelines and protocols in place for Metropolitan Police officers when encountering gas appliances connected to the national grid during the course of their duties?

The guidelines briefly say that if in an incident damage is caused to utility networks (e.g.: gas pipes) then the distribution network operator must be informed as soon as possible, together with the emergency Gas Board control and relevant police supervisors (local duty officer, Pan London Supervisor).

Q2 - Are Metropolitan Police officers authorized or instructed to tamper with or adjust gas appliances connected to the national grid under any circumstances? If so, under what conditions and with what training or qualifications?

Officers are not trained to tamper with or adjust gas appliances and so should not be asked to do this. It may be that we have officers who, outside of the MPS, may have training / qualifications / experience (or a mix of all three) in relevant fields but we would not deploy them to an incident on that basis.

Q3 - What are the standard procedures for Metropolitan Police officers when they encounter damaged or unsafe gas appliances in a property they are attending? Are they required to call a Gas Safe engineer or take any other specific actions to ensure the safety of the property and its occupants?

Officers are required to ensure that the DNO (Distibution Network Operators) / Gas Emergency control are informed and would conduct a risk assessment which probably would result in the evacuation of the occupants of a property / nearby properties to a safe location.

Q4 - How does the Metropolitan Police ensure that its officers are adequately informed and trained to recognise and respond to potential safety hazards related to gas appliances and the national grid?

We do not currently train officers in gas safety hazards specifically. There is some separate training for CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear) incidents and chemical suicides, but not for gas and the national grid.

Q5 - How does the Metropolitan Police handle situations where their officers may have inadvertently caused damage to a gas appliance or left a property with a gas appliance in an unsafe condition? What follow-up actions or responsibilities do the officers have in such cases?

There is no specific policy held in this area, however, when an officer has left a scene in an unsafe condition we would expect Police to re-attend on an urgent basis, ensure the situation was brought back to a safe state (in this case by requesting the urgent attendance of the DNO and Gas Board to fix it) and the relevant officer spoken to, to establish what they had done.