HSE begins fee for intervention

Date:

28 September 2012

The Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) new cost recovery scheme, Fee for Intervention (FFI), will come into force on Monday, 1 October.

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 many businesses that comply with their legal obligations will continue to pay nothing.

Detailed guidance for businesses and organisations is available on HSE's website. Developed in consultation with representatives from industry, it explains how the scheme works and includes examples of how it will be applied.

Geoffrey Podger, HSE's Chief Executive, said:

"The most basic safety mistakes in the workplace can devastate lives and result in real costs to industry.

It is right that those who fail to meet their legal obligations should pay HSE's costs rather than the public purse having to do so."

Fee for Intervention provides a further incentive for businesses to manage health and safety effectively and to operate within the law. It should also help level the playing field between those who comply and those who don't.

Employers can find practical advice, tools and case studies for controlling common risks and ensuring compliance with health and safety law on HSE's website at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/toolbox/index.htm

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice, promoting training, new or revised regulations and codes of practice, and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk
2. A full guide to the Fee for Intervention scheme is available on HSE's website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/fee-for-intervention/index.htm
3. Costs will be recovered where there has been a material breach of health and safety law. A material breach is where a business or organisation has broken the law and the inspector judges it serious enough to notify them in writing.
4. HSE has produced information on the most basic of safety mistakes in the workplace, which is available to view at http://www.hse.gov.uk/fee-for-intervention/basic-safety-mistakes/index.htm
5. The Health and Safety (Fees) Regulations 2012 can be found in full at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/1652/contents/made

Press enquiries

All enquiries from journalists should be directed to the HSE Press Office