What is the Legionella Control Association?

The Legionella Control Association was established at the request of HSE in 1999 as the Code of Conduct Association to raise the standards amongst companies providing legionella control services. As a leading service provider Feedwater have been involved literally from day 1 and have been an LCA Registered Company throughout the organisation’s history.

How does the Legionella Control Association work?

The LCA administers a voluntary Code of Conduct which requires registered companies to establish a management system of policies and procedures to meet 9 service provider commitments and to produce a statement of compliance which explains how the organisation complies. Companies also need to comply with specific Service Standards for those legionella control services that it is registered for. The LCA then audits the company against the Code and the service standards and provided they meet a satisfactory standard then they are given, a 12 month certificate and their name will appear on the LCA website. If their systems fall some way short they are given 3 months in which to put things right after which their name will be removed from the website.

Each year on 1st July service providers are required to re-register and provide an updated Statement of Compliance and any other information requested. There is an 8 week window until 31st August during which the member company must successfully re-register. The service provider is required to register which specific areas of activity associated with controlling legionella they are involved in such as legionella risk assessment, chemical water treatment services, cleaning and disinfection etc. They have to pay extra for each of these categories and they are required to comply with a specific service standard associated each area of activity. Their areas of registered activity are indicated on the website and printed on their registration certificate.

The member company is given a site audit by the LCA every year when their systems are examined closely. If any non-conformances are identified they have 3 months in which to correct these after which time their name is removed from the LCA website.

Does LCA registration guarantee the service you will receive?

The work of the Legionella Control Association has undoubtedly raised standards within the industry but the LCA ethos is one of inclusion and working with members to help them improve themselves and in reality, they are not all the same standard. Nowadays virtually all service providers are registered so whilst the industry standard has improved LCA registration is not in itself a means of selecting the best.

LCA registration focuses on management systems – it does not and cannot assess the suitability or effectiveness of different products or services nor does the LCA assess the competence of individual employees. The LCA only audits companies once a year, at which point they are focusing on compliance with the Code and service standards and not the effectiveness of the company’s service. Also as with any audit process, it can only look at a small sample of the service provider’s records and the chances of an auditor finding a specific issue is minimal.

In short, the LCA is a bit like ISO9001 for legionella control services – you’d expect your supplier to be accredited but you shouldn’t use it alone as your guarantee that you will get the standard of service you want. You need to test a supplier’s claims for yourself – using the LCA’s registration requirements as an assessment tool.

What the LCA requires us to tell you (extracts from the service standards for customer information)

Download the current Legionella Control Association Code of Conduct