How to Appoint a TR19 Kitchen Extract Contractor
The right contractor is the one that fits the actual job—not simply the one with the right phrase on its website.
Commercial kitchen extract work can involve grease hygiene, high-level access, roof work, restricted working hours, complex duct routes, inaccessible sections and detailed post-clean reporting. A sensible appointment process therefore looks beyond price and asks whether the contractor, technicians, proposed scope and site arrangements all match the requirement.
Do not confuse registration, training and suitability for the specific site.
A contractor can hold relevant industry credentials and still be the wrong fit for a particular project. Equally, an experienced supplier may describe itself as working to TR19® Grease without being a current Vent Hygiene Register member.
The client should therefore separate four checks: who the legal contractor is, whether the people undertaking the work are appropriately competent, whether VHR registration is required and current, and whether the proposed contractor can actually deliver the site’s scope, access and reporting needs.
The client still has a role after deciding to outsource the work.
HSE describes competence as a combination of training, skills, experience and knowledge and the ability to apply them safely. Its contractor guidance says organisations using contractors should select suitable people, exchange relevant information, coordinate the work, manage and supervise the activity and understand where responsibilities sit.
HSE’s current human-factors guidance also says organisations that outsource work should retain an understanding of the service being supplied—often described as maintaining “intelligent customer” capability. In practical terms, the client does not need to become a kitchen-extract cleaner, but it should know enough to ask sensible questions and recognise when a quotation or outcome does not answer the original requirement.
The specialist contractor owns the technical work within its scope. The client or FM team still needs to provide site information, coordinate interfaces and check that the returned outcome answers what was actually commissioned.
If you specify VHR, verify the current contractor and the correct category.
BESA describes the Vent Hygiene Register as the UK’s official register for ventilation-hygiene contractors. Its current scheme has separate Grease and Air categories. For commercial kitchen extraction, the relevant category is VHR Grease.
BESA says VHR members undergo a robust audit process covering commercial and technical capability. Its current application requirements include company financial and management information, insurance, health-and-safety arrangements, technician qualifications, an on-site technical audit and independent review of the first five post-clean reports during onboarding.
To self-certify VHR work, BESA currently states a minimum qualification of Grease Hygiene Technician for TR19® Grease activity and Air Hygiene Technician for TR19® Air activity. These scheme requirements are useful assurance checks, but the client should still compare the contractor with the actual job.
Know exactly who you are appointing.
Legal identity
Confirm the business name and legal entity shown on the quotation, purchase order, insurance documents and eventual invoice. Where a group uses trading names or subcontractors, establish who is contractually responsible for the work.
Insurance
Check the contractor carries the insurance required by the client and appropriate to the planned work. BESA’s current VHR application requirements include evidence of public liability insurance and employers’ liability insurance where applicable.
Health & safety arrangements
For work involving roofs, high-level plant, chemicals, access equipment or other hazards, ask how the contractor plans and manages the work. RAMS should reflect the actual site rather than being treated as a generic document supplied after appointment.
Subcontracting
Establish whether the company quoting will carry out the work itself and, if not, how subcontractor competence, insurance, supervision and reporting will be controlled.
A company credential does not tell you everything about the people attending the site.
BESA Academy currently offers separate Grease Hygiene Operative and Grease Hygiene Technician courses aligned with TR19® Grease and National Occupational Standards. Its technician-level course covers areas including risk assessments and method statements, pre- and post-clean testing/reporting and installation of access panels to industry standards.
That distinction matters because a site may need more than physical cleaning. Complex systems, testing, technical reporting, access-panel decisions or supervisory responsibilities may need a suitably experienced technician rather than simply a cleaning operative.
Contractor capability has to follow the real system.
The historic EC Cleaners archive includes kitchen-extract work at education, care and hospitality sites. The images show why a contractor appointment should consider the actual equipment and access conditions rather than assuming all kitchen-extract projects are operationally identical.
These photographs are historic EC project context only. They are not current Search and Submit Ltd contractor assessments or endorsements of any current supplier.
A cheaper quotation may simply contain less work.
Contractor comparison is only meaningful when suppliers are pricing the same intended system. One quotation may include canopy, horizontal duct, riser, fan and discharge; another may price only accessible sections or assume that roof access and access panels are outside scope.
Before comparing totals, identify what each supplier has included, excluded or assumed. The commercial objective is not to force identical prices—it is to understand whether the quotations answer the same requirement.
The right national contractor can still fail if the site has not been mobilised properly.
The client should provide relevant information about the workplace, hazards, access and operational restrictions. HSE’s contractor guidance stresses information exchange and coordination before work starts.
Kitchen-extract projects can fail for entirely preventable reasons: no roof key, no permit, a wedding in the function room, a production line that cannot stop, a landlord-controlled riser, no safe route for access equipment or another contractor occupying the same work area.
“Awaiting approval”, “suspended” and “expired” do not mean “approved”.
BESA’s live VHR search currently distinguishes several contractor statuses. “Approved” means the contractor is a VHR member and can demonstrate compliance with the relevant requirements. Other statuses include awaiting approval, suspended, membership expired, voluntary withdrawal and removed from the register.
BESA’s current specifier guidance recommends checking the live register and selecting a currently approved contractor where VHR is being specified. This is materially stronger than relying on a logo copied onto a proposal or website.
Registration can change. Keep the live contractor check or relevant procurement record with the appointment documentation where VHR status is important to the client or adviser.
A good quotation should reduce uncertainty before the contractor reaches site.
Not every project needs a long tender questionnaire. The depth of due diligence should be proportionate to the work and risk. For a straightforward restaurant system, a concise set of checks may be enough; a hospital, food factory, heritage property or complex multi-site estate may justify more detailed assurance.
Contractor assurance continues into close-out.
The appointment should define the evidence expected at completion so that the facilities team is not left negotiating for a report after the invoice arrives. Returned documentation should identify what was completed and keep any inaccessible or outstanding item explicit.
Where the work originated from an insurer, fire-risk assessor or consultant recommendation, the resulting evidence can be returned to that professional for review within their own appointment.
EC can structure the appointment checks without claiming to accredit the contractor.
EC Cleaners Network can organise customer-supplied contractor information, help verify publicly available VHR status, compare quotations against the intended commercial scope, identify obvious missing information and coordinate introductions to potentially appropriate independent specialists.
EC does not certify contractor competence, approve RAMS, guarantee performance, carry out VHR audits, validate insurance cover or supervise the contractor’s technical work. BESA, the contractor, insurer and relevant competent professionals retain their own roles.
Send the system information before asking contractors to compete on price.
Include the site, kitchen, previous reports, access information, original fire-risk or insurer action and any contractor requirements already specified. EC can help structure the commercial brief and identify the checks that should be resolved before award.
EC Cleaners Network is operated by Search and Submit Ltd. This guidance provides general commercial and procurement information only and is not health-and-safety, legal, insurance, engineering or technical advice. Search and Submit Ltd does not accredit contractors, certify competence, audit VHR compliance, approve RAMS, validate insurance cover, supervise specialist work, inspect systems or guarantee contractor performance. Clients remain responsible for their own procurement and statutory duties, while independent appointed contractors and relevant competent professionals remain responsible for technical assessment, safe working, physical delivery, reporting and certification within their own scope.