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The short answer is that a tag isn't the requirement. If you hire inflatables out for money, health and safety law requires the equipment to have an in-service safety inspection every twelve months, carried out by a competent person. That duty comes from the Health and Safety at Work Act and PUWER, with the detail set out in HSE's guidance, HSG175. There isn't a line of statute anywhere that says a bouncy castle must carry a PIPA tag.
What a tag does is prove it. A PIPA tag is fitted after an inspection to BS EN 14960-1:2019, it carries a number, and that number can be checked on the public PIPA database against the unit's serial and its inspection date. When a venue, a school or a council asks whether your castle is tested, the tag is the answer they can verify themselves without ringing you.
Three things cover almost every request. A current inspection report, the unit's identifying details, and the tag number to check against the database. The report should still be in date, and the serial number and dimensions on it should match the inflatable that actually turned up on the day. Most venues want the report emailed over before the booking rather than produced from the van, so keeping the PDFs on your phone is worth the bother.
If a hirer tells you their unit doesn't need a tag, they are right, up to a point. What is required is a current annual inspection by a competent person to the applicable requirements of BS EN 14960. "It doesn't need a tag" is a fair answer when there is a report to go with it. The same words with nothing to show you is a different answer.
Midland Play Inspections
We test bouncy castles, slides, obstacle courses, disco domes, soft play and ball pools to BS EN 14960-1:2019, and we come to you anywhere across the Midlands. One unit or a full fleet, and we work all year round so your kit is tested when it isn't earning.
Tell us what you've got and roughly where it's stored, and you'll get a fixed price and the next free date.