The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) proposes to introduce a Fee For Intervention (FFI) cost recovery scheme with effect from 1 October, 2012, subject to parliamentary approval of the proposed Health and Safety (Fees) Regulations 2012.
These Regulations will put a duty on HSE to recover its costs for carrying out its regulatory functions from those found to be in material breach of health and safety law. They will charge £124/hour.
A material breach is, when in the opinion of the HSE inspector, there has been a contravention of health and safety law that is serious enough to require them to notify the person in material breach of that opinion in writing. FFI will also encourage businesses and organisations to comply in the first place or put matters right quickly when they don't. HSE says it will also discourage those who undercut their competitors by not complying with the law and putting people at risk.
However, the Forum of Private Business (FPB) is criticising the bid to force small businesses to pay for their own health and safety inspections. The organisation is concerned that it will lead to a heavy-handed approach and inconsistency from individual inspectors.
“The delicate balance of trust between small business and regulators, which has shown tentative signs of improving recently, could be further complicated by what subjectively constitutes a ‘material breach’ according to different inspectors, creating in all likelihood a postcode lottery for businesses concerning health and safety compliance and enforcement,” said Phil Orford, the FPB Chief Executive.
Despite the government’s well-publicised deregulatory agenda health and safety red tape is an ever-increasing barrier to small business success and economic growth. Last year the FPB’s ‘cost of compliance’ survey found that administering health and safety leaves the UK’s smaller employers with a combined annual bill of £3.8 billion. Unlike large companies, these firms do not have internal resources dedicated to complying with regulations. Business owners or key senior managers are forced to devote a large amount of time to form filling – according to the FPB’s research an average of almost 40 hours each month – or they have to pay for an outside consultant, which can be extremely expensive.