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These two get mentioned in the same breath and they are not the same kind of thing. One is a legal requirement. The other is a scheme you choose to join.
Gas Safe is the law
Under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, anyone carrying out gas work in the course of business must be a member of a class of persons approved by the Health and Safety Executive. In practice that means being on the Gas Safe Register. There is no alternative provider and no way to do this work legally without it.
Registration covers specific work categories. Being registered for domestic boilers does not cover you for commercial catering or for appliance types outside your assessed categories. Your ACS qualifications have expiry dates and have to be reassessed, normally every five years.
Landlord checks have their own rules
- Gas appliances, pipework and flues in rented property must be checked at intervals of no more than 12 months
- A written record of each check must be made and kept
- The tenant gets a copy within 28 days, and a new tenant gets one before moving in
NICEIC is a competent person scheme
Electrical work is different. There is no single register you must join. What the law requires is that notifiable work in dwellings in England and Wales complies with Part P of the Building Regulations, and that it is either signed off by building control or self-certified by someone registered with a competent person scheme.
NICEIC is the best known of those schemes, but it is not the only one: NAPIT, ELECSA and others do the same job. Joining one lets you self-certify and issue the certificate yourself rather than paying building control for every job. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own building standards, so check the rules where you actually work.
Put it on the website and in the quote
Registration numbers are a trust signal and cost nothing to display. Customers increasingly check them, and both Gas Safe and the electrical schemes run public search tools where anyone can confirm you are current.
This is a summary of how the schemes work, not legal advice. Check your own obligations with the scheme you are registered with.