October 1st of this year, the UK’s Health and Safety Executive insitituted a “Fee for Intervention” (FFI) cost recovery scheme. 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. Novel idea? Good idea? Imagine not only getting citations from OSHA, but you would also get a bill for the CSHO’s time and services!!!! And this is not the consultation side of OSHA but would be the enforcement side!! Here’s more on what the UK’s HSE is doing with FFI …
These Regulations 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. Dutyholders who are compliant with the law, or where a breach is not material, will not be charged FFI for any work that HSE does with them.
Material Breach
A material breach is when, in the opinion of the HSE inspector, there is or has been a contravention of health and safety law that requires them to issue notice in writing of that opinion to the dutyholder. Written notification from an HSE inspector may be by a notification of contravention, an improvement or prohibition notice, or a prosecution and must include the following information:
- the law that the inspector’s opinion relates to;
- the reasons for their opinion; and
- notification that a fee is payable to HSE
Who does it apply to
FFI applies to dutyholders where HSE is the enforcing authority. This includes employers, self-employed people who put others (including their employees or members of the public) at risk, and some individuals acting in a capacity other than as an employee, eg partners. It includes:
- public and limited companies;
- general, limited and limited liability partnerships; and
- Crown and public bodies.
Hourly rate
The fee payable by dutyholders found to be in material breach of the law is £124 per hour (~197/hr in US dollars). The total amount to be recovered will be based on the amount of time it takes HSE to identify and conclude its regulatory action, in relation to the material breach (including associated office work), multiplied by the relevant hourly rate. This will include part hours.
Administrative and financial arrangements
HSE is responsible for the administration of the FFI scheme, including issuing invoices and, if needed, debt recovery. The invoice will contain the following information:
- the period of time the invoice relates to;
- a breakdown of the activities or services for which costs can be recovered for each member of HSE staff involved, and HSL or third parties;
- the time spent against each activity;
- the total fee payable; and
- a brief description of the work undertaken.
Invoicing and debt recovery functions are carried out centrally within HSE. Inspectors are not responsible for issuing invoices or for any follow-up actions relating to non-payment of invoices. Invoices will generally be sent to dutyholders every two months, within 30 working days of the end of each invoicing period. Invoices will be issued in January, March, May, July, September and November.
As FFI fees arise from HSE carrying out its statutory functions, these fees fall outside the scope of Value Added Tax (VAT), so no VAT will be charged.
[Personal comment: Does anyone else see the irony in the fact that the “value added tax” will not be added to the invoices for the services of the HSE?]
CLICK HERE for more on the FFI program.