Last Updated on September 8, 2026
There is no statutory register of kitchen fitters or bathroom fitters in the UK. That is not an oversight in this guide. It is the most important fact about the trade, and it is provable rather than merely assumed.
How we know there is no register
The government publishes the complete list of authorised competent person schemes. We read it on 8 September 2026. The scopes on it are replacement windows and doors, electrical work under Part P, plumbing and water supply, heating and hot water, roofing, airtightness, cavity insulation, oil firing and gas.
Kitchen installation is not on it. Bathroom installation is not on it. So the trade itself is unregulated, and what is regulated instead is specific operations inside the job. There are four of them.
1. Part P, and the thing the whole sector still gets wrong
Approved Document P, 2013 edition, effective 6 April 2013, lists notifiable work under regulation 12(6A) as exactly three things: installing a new circuit, replacing a consumer unit, and any addition or alteration to existing circuits in a special location.
Special locations are defined in regulation 12(9). They are rooms containing a bath or shower, within a space extending vertically to 2.25 metres or shower head height if higher, and horizontally 0.6 metres from the edge of the bath or 1.2 metres from the centre point of the shower head. And rooms containing a swimming pool or a sauna heater.
Kitchens are not a special location. They were removed in the 2013 edition.
The practical consequence for each trade:
- A bathroom fitter altering a circuit inside that zone is doing notifiable work. That lands on most bathroom jobs and it is a real, recurring obligation.
- A kitchen fitter is doing notifiable work only if a new circuit is added or the consumer unit is replaced. Moving sockets in a kitchen, on its own, is not notifiable.
If you are paying competent person scheme fees purely on the belief that kitchens are Part P, you are paying for an obligation that ended thirteen years ago. That is worth an hour of your evening to check.
What self-certification actually costs
The three compliance routes in Approved Document P are self-certification by a registered competent person, third party certification, or a building control body inspecting and issuing a completion certificate.
NICEIC, trading as Certsure, publishes its full fee sheet, effective 1 April 2025 and read on 8 September 2026:
| Fee | Ex VAT | Inc VAT |
|---|---|---|
| Application review, per address requiring assessment | £95 | £114 |
| Application fee including assessment | £575 | £690 |
| Annual, by direct debit, including assessment | £555 | £666 |
| Annual, other payment methods | £575 | £690 |
| TrustMark status, payable annually after certification | £145 | £174 |
NAPIT, the main alternative, publishes no registration or annual fee at all; its scheme page directs you to phone or email. So the only published comparison available is NICEIC’s £666 a year including VAT, which is about 3.2 times FENSA’s published annual registration of £206.40 for a window installer.
2. Gas Safe, the one hard legal gate
Any gas work requires Gas Safe registration. It is the largest and best documented installer register in UK home improvement: 76,630 registered businesses and 150,729 registered engineers at 31 March 2024, with 60,174 inspections carried out that year against a target of 54,475.
It is also the one register the public genuinely knows to check, at gassaferegister.co.uk, by postcode, appliance type, seven-digit engineer licence number or business registration number. If you hold it, put the number on the site as text.
3. Water regulations, narrower than people think
Regulation 5 of the Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999 requires notice to the water undertaker before installing certain fittings, and work must not start without consent, which cannot be unreasonably withheld.
The items that recur in domestic bathroom work are narrow: a bath holding more than 230 litres, and a bidet with an ascending spray. Also on the list are reverse osmosis units, certain pumps, treatment units, ponds and pools over 10,000 litres with automatic replenishment, and system alterations on non-domestic premises.
WaterSafe approved contractors are exempt from notifying three of those categories and can issue Certificates of Compliance. Sell WaterSafe approval as credibility, which it genuinely is, rather than as a legal necessity, which for most domestic bathrooms it is not.
4. TrustMark, and when it becomes compulsory
TrustMark lists Kitchen and Bathroom among its trade keywords, so a homeowner searching its directory will find fitters. But the TrustMark mandate applies to work delivered under government-funded schemes: the Energy Company Obligation, the Great British Insulation Scheme, Warm Homes Discount and Warm Homes Plan, which require lodgement into the TrustMark Data Warehouse.
A private-pay kitchen or bathroom job carries no TrustMark requirement. If you add insulation work for cash, still none. Chase ECO or GBIS funding and you need TrustMark registration plus PAS 2030 certification for the measure. That is a business model fork, not an accreditation detail.
The voluntary bodies, and what they cost
| Body | Cost | Public check | CTSI approved code? |
|---|---|---|---|
| BIFIS, formerly BiKBBI | £20 plus VAT a month including one installer, then £10 plus VAT per installer | Yes, validate by registration number with an N prefix | No |
| KBSA | Not published | Member directory by postcode or name | No |
| TrustMark | Not published | Find a tradesperson by trade and location | n/a |
| WaterSafe | Not published | Free approved contractor directory | n/a |
Two things worth saying plainly about that table. First, BiKBBI renamed to the British Institute of Fitted Interiors Specialists effective 1 October 2025, and the old domain now redirects. Anything on your site still saying BiKBBI is stale. Second, we read the Chartered Trading Standards Institute’s own directory of approved code sponsors on 8 September 2026 and there is no approved consumer code covering kitchen or bathroom installation. Neither BIFIS nor KBSA is on it.
One correction we should also make, because it appears in a lot of sector content: BIFIS does not publish deposit protection or an insurance-backed guarantee on its consumer page. What it publishes is accreditation, background checks, and a paid inspection service at £155 to £750 plus VAT for dispute work. Do not claim protections a body does not offer.
What to actually publish
- Company number and registered address, as text in the footer.
- Gas Safe number if you hold one, with a link to the register.
- Which competent person scheme covers your electrical work, and whether it is you or a subcontractor.
- BIFIS registration number, which a customer can validate in under a minute.
- A plain sentence about what is notifiable on a bathroom job and who notifies it.
That last one is the differentiator. In a trade with no register, being the person who explains the rules clearly is a position nobody else is occupying.
Common questions
Do I need to be registered to fit kitchens in the UK?
No. There is no statutory register of kitchen or bathroom fitters, and no government-authorised competent person scheme covers kitchen or bathroom installation as a trade. Specific operations inside the job are regulated: Part P notifiable electrical work, gas work, and certain water fittings.
Are kitchens Part P?
Not as a special location, and they have not been since the 2013 edition of Approved Document P took effect on 6 April 2013. Work in a kitchen is notifiable only if it involves a new circuit or a consumer unit replacement.
Is BiKBBI still called that?
No. It became the British Institute of Fitted Interiors Specialists, BIFIS, effective 1 October 2025, and bikbbi.org.uk redirects to bifis.org.
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