F-gas qualification rules

Work on a heat pump’s fluorinated-refrigerant circuit is regulated separately from the heating design, electrical work and MCS installation. In Great Britain, the person handling the F-gas needs an appropriate individual qualification and, where a business works on equipment for others, the business normally needs company certification as well.

This entry covers Great Britain: England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland remains within the EU F-gas system and has separate guidance. Do not carry Great Britain phase-down or product-ban dates across to Northern Ireland without checking the current EU and DAERA position.

When an individual qualification is required

GOV.UK says an individual needs an appropriate qualification to carry out the following work on stationary refrigeration, air-conditioning and heat-pump systems containing F-gas:

• installing a new system
• servicing or maintaining it
• checking it for leaks
• recovering refrigerant
• decommissioning and disposing of it

The qualification belongs to the individual, even when that person works for a certified employer. It is against the law to carry out regulated F-gas work without the correct qualification.

The key boundary is the refrigerant circuit, not whether someone describes themselves as a heat-pump engineer. Electrical work, water pipework, mounting and controls have their own competence requirements. Opening, joining, charging, evacuating, leak-checking or recovering from an F-gas circuit engages the refrigerant rules as applicable to the task.

The four certificate categories

The recognised personal-certificate categories have different scopes:

Category	Scope stated by GOV.UK
1	All covered activities
2	Installation, maintenance, service and recovery on systems containing less than 3 kg of F-gas, or less than 6 kg if hermetically sealed
3	Recovery only within the same 3 kg or 6 kg limits
4	Leak checking without breaking into the refrigeration circuit

Check the actual refrigerant charge, whether the circuit is hermetically sealed and the work being performed. “Domestic heat pump” is not a certificate category and does not prove that Category 2 is sufficient.

GOV.UK maintains the recognised awarding organisations and notes that CITB no longer issues new F-gas qualifications or certification. Use that live list to check a credential rather than relying on a course name copied into an old guide.

Personal and company certification are different

The individual qualification proves the person’s permitted F-gas scope. Company certification applies to the business undertaking regulated work for other people.

GOV.UK says a company, including a sole trader, must be certified by an approved body to install, repair, maintain or decommission stationary refrigeration, air-conditioning or heat-pump equipment containing F-gas for others. To qualify, it must demonstrate enough trained staff and a written procedure for safe handling and minimising emissions.

The Great Britain company-certification bodies listed by GOV.UK are:

• Refcom Certification
• F-Gas Register, operated by Quidos
• Bureau Veritas UK

As at 22 July 2026, GOV.UK says company certification is renewed every three years. Check the live company certificate and legal entity, particularly where one firm sold the system and another subcontractor makes the refrigerant connections.

A business working only on its own equipment does not need company certification under the stated exception. The individual who handles the F-gas still needs the personal qualification.

Split and monobloc heat pumps

A split heat pump normally has refrigerant pipework joined and commissioned on site. That work should be allocated to an appropriately qualified individual working through a correctly certified business.

A monobloc normally keeps its refrigerant circuit sealed within the factory-built outdoor unit, so installing its water and electrical connections does not by itself mean the installer has opened or joined an F-gas circuit. Later work that does enter the circuit can still require the appropriate qualification and company certification.

Do not use “monobloc” as proof that no F-gas duties can ever arise. Confirm the product construction and the exact service task.

Natural refrigerants such as propane

Propane, R290, is not an F-gas, so an F-gas certificate is not the legal qualification for handling propane. Equally, an F-gas certificate does not establish competence to work safely on a flammable hydrocarbon circuit.

The installer still needs suitable knowledge, equipment and procedures for the refrigerant, product and task, including the manufacturer’s requirements and the general health-and-safety duties that apply. Ask specifically about competence for the refrigerant in the proposed unit rather than asking only, “Are you F-gas registered?”

Leak checks use CO2 equivalent, not only kilograms

Under the Great Britain rules current as at 22 July 2026, scheduled leak-check frequency depends on the charge expressed as tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent. This is calculated from the refrigerant mass and its global warming potential.

The general thresholds for stationary heat pumps containing F-gas are:

Charge	Minimum check frequency
5 to less than 50 tonnes CO2e	Every 12 months
50 to less than 500 tonnes CO2e	Every 6 months
500 tonnes CO2e or more	Every 3 months, with automatic leak detection required in the usual stationary-equipment case

Installing qualifying automatic leak detection doubles the permitted interval. Hermetically sealed equipment below 10 tonnes CO2e has the stated exemption from periodic checks, provided the sealing status is properly established.

These thresholds are regulatory figures under the current Great Britain regime, not estimates of a typical home system. Read the unit label and technical data and calculate the actual CO2e. Do not assume that every domestic heat pump is below the threshold or that every factory-sealed unit is exempt.

If a leak is found, GOV.UK requires it to be repaired as soon as possible and checked again within one month.

Records

For equipment at or above 5 tonnes CO2e, the operator and service business have record duties. The record includes the gas and charge, additions during service, mandatory leak checks, recovery and disposal, and the certified businesses used.

The Great Britain guidance requires those records to be kept for five years. This five-year period is a record-retention rule. It should not be confused with the unsupported claim that every Great Britain personal F-gas qualification expires and must be revalidated every five years.

GOV.UK’s current personal-qualification guidance does not state a general five-year statutory revalidation cycle. A particular card, scheme or employer may impose its own currency requirements, so check the named credential, but do not present an industry refresher course as a universal legal expiry date.

Great Britain is not following every new EU date

F-gas rules have diverged since EU exit. Great Britain retained and amended its own regime, while Northern Ireland remains within the EU system.

The government consulted in late 2025 on changing the Great Britain HFC phase-down. Its May 2026 update said it would not legislate in 2026 to change the phase-down step from 1 January 2027, and that the existing Annex 5 step would continue to apply for 2027.

This means product phase-out dates from the EU’s newer F-gas regulation should not be presented as Great Britain law. For example, the previous draft’s claimed 2027 monobloc and 2029 split-system deadlines were not established by the Great Britain sources and have been removed. Use the current GOV.UK product-ban table for equipment placed on the Great Britain market.

F-gas is not whole-system competence

An F-gas certificate addresses the regulated refrigerant work within its category. It does not by itself establish competence in:

• room-by-room heat-loss calculation and heat-pump selection
• hydraulic and emitter design
• electrical design and Part P notification
• DNO procedures
• planning and acoustic assessment
• MCS design, installation and consumer-protection requirements

MCS certification does not replace the F-gas qualification either. A split-system project can require both, alongside separate electrical and heating competence.

Individual and company qualifications

Ask for:

• the individual’s qualification, category and awarding organisation
• the company certificate for the legal entity doing the work
• confirmation that the category covers the refrigerant charge and task
• refrigerant type, mass, CO2e and hermetically sealed status from the product data
• any required leak-check schedule and who will keep the records
• refrigerant-specific competence where the unit uses propane or another non-F-gas
• the commissioning and refrigerant-recovery records applicable to the work

Related entries

• MIS 3005 heat pump standard
• R290 propane refrigerant
• R32 refrigerant
• Monobloc ASHP units
• Seasonal heat pump maintenance
• MCS installation standards