Companies being invoiced for H&S checks under the Fees for Intervention Scheme (FFI) can expect their bills to rise following a boost in hourly rates charged by the HSE.
Since April fees have increased by 4% to £129 per hour to help recoup the HSE’s spiralling costs for carrying out health and safety checks.
FFI was introduced in October 2012 and applies to those firms that are found to be non-compliant on inspection, and in doing so shifts the financial burden from taxpayer to law-breaking firms.
According the HSE annual report for 2015/2016 the fees brought in for the year amounted to £14.7m, leaving a shortfall of £2.7m to cover £17.4m costs.The previous year costs recovered were £10.1m, leaving a shortfall of £1.8m.
If the HSE makes a surplus over its costs, it is clawed back by the Treasury. The capped amount for 2016/2017 is £17m.
According to Health and Safety at Work magazine the average cost of an invoice issued under the HSE’s Fees for Intervention scheme is running in excess of £700, an increase of 40% since the first bills were sent out nearly three years ago.
The latest figures show that in the August 2015 invoice run, which covers notices of contravention issued in April and May, the HSE sent 2,922 invoices for a total of £2.01m, an average of £715 each.
