Natural Gas Utilities Editing and Proofreading Services

Somebody smells gas. What they do in the next ninety seconds is determined by whatever they half-remember from a leaflet, a bill insert or a sticker on the meter cupboard — and the difference between the right actions and the plausible ones is the difference between an engineer attending a leak and a house being demolished.

We edit what gas utilities and distribution networks produce — gas emergency and safety messaging, smell gas instructions across every channel, carbon monoxide awareness material, appliance safety and servicing communications, meter access and safety notices, planned and emergency works notifications, connection and disconnection communications, priority and vulnerable customer material, mains replacement programme communications for streets and residents, engineer visit and appointment material, safety documentation for landlords and businesses, and public information about the network. Our editors work on the instructions people follow under pressure.

The smell gas instruction is the most consequential piece of writing a gas utility owns, and its weaknesses are all a matter of ordering and specificity. People act on the first thing they read and they do not read a list to the end. We work through these so the emergency number is first, before the instructions, since a person who reads one line should have dialled; so the actions are given in the order they must be done rather than in a logical grouping, with the prohibitions attached to the actions they contradict — open the windows, do not turn on the extractor fan; so the prohibitions name what people actually reach for, covering the light switch, the doorbell, the mobile phone inside the property and the car parked over the service, because a general instruction against electrical items does not reach somebody who is already holding a phone; so the difference between a faint smell and a strong one is addressed, given that most people underreact and the guidance should tell them not to judge; so the outside meter and the internal control valve are described in words a person can match to what they are looking at, with an image where the channel allows; and so the same wording appears on the sticker, the leaflet, the bill and the website, because inconsistency is what makes people hesitate. Utilities that write this way get the ninety seconds right.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including communications, network information and customer material. We are editors rather than gas safety, engineering or regulatory advisers, and we offer no view on emergency procedures, safety guidance or compliance. What we can do is order the instructions the way somebody will use them.