HSE cost recovery scheme starts today

The Health & Safety Executive’s (HSE) new cost recovery scheme — Fee for Intervention (FFI) — comes into force today (1st October 2012) in England, Scotland and Wales.

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.

Under FFI, the HSE will only recover costs from dutyholders in material breach of the law. Those who are compliant, or where a breach is not material, will not be charged FFI for any work that the HSE does with them.

The guidance defines a material breach as where “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”.

Written notification from an HSE inspector may be by a notification of contravention, an improvement or prohibition notice, or a prosecution.

It must always include information on the law that the inspector’s opinion relates to, the reasons for their opinion, and notification that a fee is payable.

The proposed FFI hourly rate for 2012/13 is £124 and, where an inspector finds a breach, the charge will begin from when the inspector first arrived at a premises.

The HSE has published guidance, which includes examples of material breaches but makes clear these do not cover every scenario where FFI might apply.

Examples include not providing effective guards or safety devices to prevent access to dangerous parts of machinery, and leaving materials containing asbestos in poor or damaged condition, potentially releasing asbestos fibres.