04 Jul 2014
Compliance experts are urging hotel and restaurant facilities managers to ensure their air conditioning is certified.
Inteb reveals that a qualified assessor must check any air conditioning system with more than 12kW of output so businesses can prove they are meeting the requirements of European directives.
Organisations that follow the rules receive a TM44 certificate, but those who don’t face a £300 fine per day for every system that fails an inspection.
Inteb believes no more than one in 10 businesses that the law applies to are actually complying with it and Trading Standards Officers are carrying out many checks. This lack of activity has been reported to the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). It says it has the power to punish councils whose officers are failing to enforce the law.
The accreditation organisation Sterling has lodged a Freedom of Information request to discover what efforts councils have made to make sure businesses in their areas are following the rules, such as inspection and enforcement data.
The National Association of Air Conditioning Assessors asks both members and non-members to flag up instances where businesses are not complying with the legislation.
Copyright Press Association 2014