HSE Proposes to introduce a Fee for Intervention cost recovery scheme with effect from 1st October 2012. ACT NOW before its too late. Your company could face being charged £124 an hour for identyfing Health and Safety material breaches, and for any on-going intervention. Its not if its when.
A material breach is where you have broken the law and the inspector judges this to be serious enough for them to notify you in writing. A Health and Safety breach could be: Staff working in an unsafe environment; Not having a Health and Safety Policy and Risk Assesment; Not carrying out Workplace Exposure Monitoring; Not Managing your Asbestos; Etc.....
The inspector will record the time they have spent identifying the material breach which may include helping you to put it right, investigating and taking enforcement action. This will include all the time spent on site and:
- carrying out visits,
- writing letters ,
- notices,
- reports,
- taking statements and
- getting specialists support complex issues.
This total amount of time will be multiplied by an hourly rate to give you the amount you must pay. Some experts have estimated an everage bill of over £3K for minor breaches.
Law abiding businesses will be free from the HSE cost recovery scheme if they take Workplace Health and Safety seriously and adopt a robust Health and Safety Management System.
The HSE hope that the scheme will encourage businesses and organisations to comply with health and safety law in the first place or put matters right quickly when they don’t. It will also discourage those who undercut their competitors by not complying with the law and putting people at risk.
If you want to avoid HSE fees then Contact Us now or go to our website to see what else we can offer you. www.bradley-enviro.co.uk
By: Martina Brown (mbrown@bradley-enviro.co.uk)