Safe Control of Operations

The Safe Control of Operations (SCO) scheme covers all gas personnel involved in operational and/or minor works on the gas networks and certain types of meter installation. This includes, but is not limited to those who currently are, or will become, named Competent Persons or Authorising Engineers for both Permits to Work and Forms of Authority and, where appropriate, Routine and/or Non Routine Operations. As of the 31st of October 2020 a revised course and structure for SCO training was released.

The candidate must ensure that they are booked onto the correct version of the  SCO courses and meet the pre-requisites listed below or they will be unable to achieve the qualification. No refunds will be able to be issued if a candidate attends a course for which they cannot be registered. If you need assistance to check if your candidate qualifies or what modules to book them onto please contact our staff who will be happy to help.

SCO Initial (full course) – Operatives requiring new SCO registrations or operatives whose SCO registrations have expired.

SCO Renewal – For operatives who have an in date old version of the SCO registrations AND a GL6 update record on their EUSR registration page who wish to renew (please note you are no longer able to sit the GL6 update as it has been withdrawn, if not already held then the candidate must sit a new entrant course), or those renewing the new versions of the training courses delivered from October 2020. Operatives must sit their renewal training before their current SCO registrations expire.

IGEM GL/6 Update briefing –  is a requirement for anyone with a SCO registration achieved prior to October 2020 who is currently working on the gas network. This must have been watched by the 15th of June 2022 and registered with EUSR. It is also a pre-requisite for anyone wishing to undertake the renewal of their SCO registrations if they achieved the original qualification prior to October 2020. As this date has now passed, unless a trainee has this on their EUSR record they will need to sit a new entrant course rather than a renewal course. The older qualifications are;

SCO 1/2, SCO 4 & SCO 5. 

Courses are now modular and there are 5 modules in total. Each module is delivered as a separate registered course and the candidate sits the required ones to achieve their CP or CP/AE status.

It is no longer a requirement to cover both Forms of Authority and Permits to Work candidates should be put forward for the relevant courses for their role.

All candidates must sit module 1 SHEA Core. Following this you will also need to sit Module 5 ‘form of authority’ if you just require registration as a CP or AE to issue or receive FOA for access to operational sites to carry out lower hazard work – examples include grass cutting, painting, fencing (with no digging) or minor maintenance.

If you need to apply for registration to give or receive permits to work and/or forms and authority as per the previous SCO 1&2 registration you must sit Module 1 (Core), Module 2 (PTW) and Module 5 (FOA) – AE’s will sit a different assessment to CP’s for module 2 but can attend the same course.

For any CP or AE candidates wishing to be registered to authorise or prepare and/or receive Routine Operational permitry you must complete Module 1 (Core) , Module 2 (PTW), and Module 4 (RO).

For any CP or AE candidates wishing to be registered to authorise or prepare and/or receive Routine Operational permitry and Non-routine operational permitry you must complete Module 1 (Core), Module 2 (PTW), Module 3 (NRO) and M4dule 4 (RO).

You will also need module 5 (Forms of authority) if you are going to need to issue these permits as an AE or receive this permitry as a CP.

Please note training is only the first step in becoming registered as an AE/CP please see full requirements in GL6 ed3. 

Open courses will be listed on our Open Course Diary Page.

New Entrant Course Timescales

• Module 1 SCO Core – Half Day Course
• Module 2 Permit to Work – Half Day Course
• Module 3 Non-Routine Operations – 1.5 day course
• Module 4 Routine Oerations – up to 6 hours
• Module 5 Forms of Authority – Half Day Course

SCO Core is mandatory for all combinations of qualification, and SCO Permit to Work is Mandatory to progress to SCO Routine Operations or SCO Non-Routine Operations.

Renewal Course Timescales

• Module 1 SCO Core – 2 hours
• Module 2 Permit to Work – 1.5 hours
• Module 3 Non-Routine Operations – 2.5 hours
• Module 4 Routine Operations – 2 hours
• Module 5 Forms of Authority – 1.5 hours

Please contact us for further information or to book a private course. Open course prices are published on the open course list page.