Website for UK tradespeople: reviews Gas Safe and NICEIC logos

A tradesperson's website has a narrow job: show customers that you are real, qualified and local, and make it easy to ask for a quote. In our view, reviews and trade badges do more for that trust than any slogan. They are also the part of the site where mistakes carry real consequences, because logos belong to someone else and the rules on reviews are now backed by direct penalties from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

Last checked: October 2026. On 20 October 2026 we read the Gas Safe Register's published policies, a copy of NICEIC's logo guidelines, trading standards guidance, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCC Act) on legislation.gov.uk, CMA and ICO guidance, a law-firm briefing and a trade press report. We could not open Checkatrade's or TrustATrader's own pages. This is practical guidance, not legal advice, so check the current rules with each scheme before you publish anything.

Gas Safe Register's Brand Enforcement Policy (February 2026) says that registered businesses have been granted a non-exclusive licence to use the appropriate brand in accordance with the published Brand Guidelines. Only registered gas businesses are permitted to display the brand and/or a Gas Safe registration number, and only in association with the registered trading name. The policy describes a separate Registered Business Version of the logo, identifiable by its black square background.

Registered engineers find further guidance by logging into their online account and opening the Resource Hub, where the policy points to the marketing toolkit, logos and brand guidelines. A business that is not registered because it does not carry out gas work, but wants to use the brand, needs a written and signed non-exclusive brand licence agreement. According to the policy, such a licence costs no fee, is issued only to promote the Register and gas safety, and is not issued to unregistered businesses that subcontract gas work. Applications go to the brand team by email.

The Registration Policy (February 2026) adds two points that matter for a website. The trading name you use must be and remain the name registered with Gas Safe Register; a registered business advertising with the brand under a different trading name is dealt with under the Brand Enforcement Policy. And misuse of the brand, meaning use outside the published guidelines, including branding similar in colour or style, is listed as an example of bringing the Register into disrepute.

Enforcement is not limited to registered businesses. The brand policy names websites, adverts, vehicle signage, stationery, social media and online directories as marketing material, says legal action may be taken where a business persists in misuse, and says details may in certain circumstances be forwarded to the appropriate enforcement authority. We did not see the Brand Guidelines themselves, so we cannot tell you the logo's size, placement or colour rules. Get them through your account once registered.

NICEIC's logo usage guidelines (April 2023) are available to us only as a copy hosted on a third-party contractor's website. That copy says the NICEIC logo and wordmark are trademarks and that the Approved Contractor logo signifies a business assessed as meeting the scheme's requirements. Organisations may not use the NICEIC logo in isolation; it can be used alongside the appropriate scheme logos. Certificated businesses should use the logo correctly whenever they promote their Approved Contractor status, there are no size restrictions as long as it stays legible, and it may be used anywhere except in situations relating to services outside the scope of the business's NICEIC certification. Scheme logos can be downloaded from the NICEIC Customer Portal. The guide itself says the rules are subject to change, so check the current version with NICEIC.

Misuse has been prosecuted. Electrical Review reported a contractor who pleaded guilty to eight counts of unauthorised use of a trade logo, including the NICEIC logo, after trading standards action; he was fined £1,200. The same report says NICEIC set up a list naming contractors caught falsely claiming membership and passes their details to trading standards. Customers can look up registered contractors through the find-a-tradesperson search on niceic.com, so assume they will check.

Business Companion, the trading standards guidance for England, Scotland and Wales, explains that the DMCC Act bans businesses from displaying any trust mark, quality mark or equivalent without authorisation, and bans claims of approval or endorsement that are not true. This applies even if a business holds an approval but is not complying with its terms. Business Companion advises that particular care should be taken with the Gas Safe logo, and that businesses should not start to use any logo until the organisation authorises it. The ban itself is paragraph 3 of Schedule 20 to the Act, in force since 6 April 2025.

Business Companion also makes the business responsible for invalid claims made on its behalf, including by advertising agencies. In practice:

1. Use a logo only if your registration or membership is current today.
2. Use the version supplied by the scheme, unaltered.
3. Use the exact registered trading name.
4. Remove the logo the day your registration ends or lapses, from the website, vehicles and documents.
5. Do not use look-alike badges or wording that suggests an approval you do not have.
6. Brief anyone who builds or edits your site or adverts, because their mistakes are your responsibility.

Review each badge when you renew your registration. Ask yourself whether the page says what you can prove.

Directories such as Checkatrade and TrustATrader give customers a view of you from outside your own website. Their own pages could not be opened in this check, so we say nothing about their review rules or whether they let you embed review widgets. Read the terms for your account or ask the directory, and if you use a widget, use the one the directory provides.

Showing directory reviews on your own site still brings duties. The CMA's short guide for businesses publishing consumer reviews says it applies to traders who publish reviews or review information from any source, including reviews originally collated by someone else. You can agree with a third party that it monitors reviews, but you remain responsible for taking your own steps.

The law on fake reviews

Paragraph 13 of Schedule 20 to the DMCC Act, in force since 6 April 2025, bans submitting, or commissioning another person to submit or write, a fake consumer review or a review that conceals that it has been incentivised. It also bans publishing reviews or review information in a misleading way, and publishing them without the reasonable and proportionate steps needed to prevent and remove banned reviews. The CMA guide counts overall ratings, review summaries, review counts and rankings as review information. A Lewis Silkin briefing adds that you are still caught if a company or individual does any of this on your behalf.

The CMA expects publishers to have a published policy that clearly prohibits fake reviews and states their approach to incentivised reviews, and to assess the risk of banned content regularly. What is reasonable depends on your circumstances, including whether reviews are first published on a site controlled by someone else. Under section 182 of the Act, a CMA penalty can be a fixed amount of up to £300,000 or, if higher, 10% of the total value of the trader's turnover.

For a tradesperson, the safe practice is simple: never pay for reviews or write your own, do not reward reviews without making that clear, and show reviews exactly as the directory publishes them. Ask genuine customers for a review after a job, and reply to poor ones politely.

• Home page: your trade, the area you cover, a phone number that can be tapped on a mobile and a clear "get a quote" button.
• Service pages: one page per main service, with a plain description, typical jobs and what to expect. Do not list towns you do not work in.
• Proof: real photos of your work with the customer's agreement, current accreditation logos used within the rules and reviews shown as published.
• About: who you are, how long you have traded, qualifications you can evidence.
• Contact and quote form: name, phone or email, a description of the job and postcode. Photos help if you want to price remotely. Keep it short.
• Business details: your registered trading name, business address and contact details. Check what legal and regulatory details your trade requires.

A quote form collects personal data. The ICO's guidance on privacy information says the UK GDPR specifies what you need to tell individuals when you collect personal data from them, including the purposes of the processing, your lawful basis and the recipients you share the data with. Keep the form to the fields you need, link your privacy notice next to it, and if third-party services sit behind the form, such as spam protection or email delivery, name them in the notice.

Do not add enquirers to a marketing list by default. The ICO's guidance on electronic mail marketing says you must not send marketing emails or texts to individuals without specific consent, with a limited exception for your own previous customers, often called the soft opt-in.

Reply promptly. An automatic confirmation that says when you will call back sets expectations and saves the customer from chasing you.

1. Every logo on the site matches a current registration or membership.
2. The wording of badges matches the scheme's rules and uses your registered trading name.
3. No reviews are bought, written by you or selectively edited, and any widget comes from the directory.
4. Photos are your own work and shown with the customer's agreement.
5. The quote form asks only for what you need, with a link to the privacy notice.
6. Marketing emails go only to people who agreed to them.
7. Phone numbers work with a tap, and the site loads quickly on a mobile.
8. Someone checks the site every renewal date and removes anything that has lapsed.

For a trade business with a handful of pages, a simple presentation site from us starts from €300 excluding VAT. Our services page lists what we build, the references page shows examples, and you can describe your job through the quote form or ask a question on the contact page.

• Gas Safe Register Brand Enforcement Policy, February 2026
• Gas Safe Register Registration Policy, February 2026
• NICEIC Logo Usage Guidelines, April 2023 (copy hosted by Maximum Air)
• Electrical contractor fined for misuse of NICEIC logo – Electrical Review
• NICEIC – find a trusted tradesperson
• Membership logos and claims of approval – Business Companion
• Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, Schedule 20 – legislation.gov.uk
• Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, section 182 – legislation.gov.uk
• Short guide for businesses: publishing consumer reviews and complying with consumer protection law – CMA, GOV.UK
• DMCC Act 2024 and fake and misleading consumer reviews – Lewis Silkin
• What privacy information should we provide? – ICO
• Electronic mail marketing – ICO