The Health and Safety Executive has announced that it has implemented a Fee for Intervention (FFI) cost recovery scheme, which came into effect on 1 October 2012.
Under The Health and Safety (Fees) Regulations 2012, those who break health and safety laws are liable for recovery of HSE's related costs, including inspection, investigation and taking enforcement action.
The HSE website (http://www.hse.gov.uk/fee-for-intervention/index.htm) advises: 'The Fee for Intervention hourly rate for 2012/13 is £124. The many businesses that comply with their legal obligations will continue to pay nothing.'
While H&S compliance should never be based on whether or not you get caught or fined, perhaps its one more reason to ensure YOU are complying with legislation to protect members of the public, employees, the environment and ultimately you and your business....
Views: 36
Replies
In theory it makes sense. If companies are deliberately flouting H&S and putting employees and members of the public at risk, then they should cover the costs of the HSE holding them to account. I would just hope that they would take a supportive role when it comes to smaller companies who may be flouting the rules unintentionally or through a lack of experience.
The word HSE can be a scary word for small businesses. In six years in business we have been involved with the HSE on 2 occasions. I am glad to say that on both occasions they were reasonable, understanding and supportive.
"I would just hope that they would take a supportive role when it comes to smaller companies who may be flouting the rules unintentionally or through a lack of experience".
Ignorance of the law is no defence. They should go equally as easy on large contractors with previously unblemished histories when just one employee makes one mistake on one job out of many thousands of previously completed trouble free jobs.
"Ignorance of the law is no defence. They should go equally as easy on large contractors with previously unblemished histories when just one employee makes one mistake on one job out of many thousands of previously completed trouble free jobs"
I agree that ignorance of the law is no defense, but hammering inexperienced businesses could actually be counterproductive and weaken there future ability to comply with regulations. I am just suggesting that a supportive role may be in everybody's interests in the long term. I believe that the HSE should be focussing the aggressive side of their resources on the repeat offenders and the ones who are willfully flouting the rules
Yes, very right.
The HSE should be there to help and guide us all, so why do they then have such a fearsome reputation ?
We had a situation six months ago, when a former disgruntled employee (stone mason) told the H&S we weren't providing PPE. It was a complete lie, we have got a very modern set up and a very thorough health & safety policy. When the HSE turned up out of the blue to investigate, I was pretty nervous, even though we were on top of things. The HSE guy had a walk around and a quick look through our records and after ten minutes, he was completely satisfied that the claim was nonsense. We then put the kettle on and for the next hour he gave us loads of good advice and areas for improvements, and told us a few horror stories about stuff he'd seen in the past. It kind of blew the fearsome reputation myth out of the water for us.
Although, maybe the fearsome reputation is a good thing ?