The Society of Laundry Engineers and Allied Trades has announced to its members the extension, until 31 March 1999, of the SLEAT ACOPS assessment course for laundry equipment, held at British Gas.
The course was originally due for termination on 31 July 1998 due to a change in Corgi accreditation procedures. Concern had been shown by SLEAT that the new assessment requirements under the Nationally Accredited Certification Scheme (NACS) for gas fitting operatives were not ready for implementation.
These concerns, which were expressed to both Corgi and to the HSE, were recognised by the latter in a letter to all ACOPS providers. The letter confirmed the extension of the timescale under which assessments for LPG and non-domestic elements can continue until 31 March 1999. ACOP certificates awarded between 1 August 1998 and 31 March 1999 will however expire on 31 July 2003 to ensure that from that date all valid certificates will be issued under the new scheme.
For all domestic natural gas assessments, the 1 August 1998 date remains. No domestic natural gas assessments should be offered after the 1 August and any certificates issued under the ACOP scheme after that date will reportedly not be valid for CORGI registration purposes. A recent lunch meeting held at the Royal College of Surgeons of England witnessed the installment of the new president of SLEAT, Mr Mike Bassett. Former president, Mr Ray Sheldrick officially handed over the president’s badge.
A recent meeting of the European Textile Care Equipment Manufacturers Organisation in London also saw the appointment of Mr Sheldrick to succeed Mr Pierre Girbau as the new president of ELMO.
