HSE cost recovery

Its nothing to do with the duty of care anymore is it, its all about making money. We have clients telling us what brand name of gloves to wear, usually the dearest, not only we need training for simple things that we have been doing for years, but what company we must do the training with. Now this HSE charging for prosecutions, we all know that the amount of prosecutions will rise to bump their revenue up. And to say if your complying you have nothing to worry about OK, whos company complies with every single piece of legislation?. Whos got a yard where the stacks are all to regulation height, dead level ground, not one LPG or flamable laying around, all of which can get you an improvement notice for. They will now turn into traffic police, and the easier targets will get targeted, and not for the duty of care.
 
Hi Gerscaff,

From what you describe I don't think that the HSE would class you as a cowboy, I have known inspectors deal with really big firms and still give them prohibition notices when the guys on site have been doing daft things, and work with small one man bands like yourself and walk away completely satisfied with what you're doing.

There is nothing private about the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Work at height regulations 2005 - they are in the public domain - all HSE require is that you work within industry agreed guidance and comply with the law. I know that you personally may not have agreed the guidance - but who else besides the SCCR (who weren't around at the time) could HSE talk to at the time. Bear in mind that the guidance tells you how to comply with the law and whist it's not law it is persuasive in court - very persuasive.

You have to remember the whole enforcement issue is based on what the inspector sees at the time - no matter how big a firm you are if the inspector catches you without guardrails and not clipped on it is likely to be a prohibition notice, inspectors will not serve a notice without evidence so it is likely that the inspector has taken photos - this will make very hard, if not impossible for you to mount an appeal against a notice.

For the HSE it's not about making money - it's about survival in it's present form. In answer to Poledancer's question, the HSE is only about controlling risk - the way that inspectors approach any situation is detailed here:

http://www.hse.gov.uk/enforce/emm.pdf

This hopefully ensures consitancy in the inspector's approach - as I said in my earlier post Fee For Intervention is about material breach - not technical breach - the instances that you have quoted may lead to an Improvement Notice but if you offer to sort stuff out like that most inspectors that I know would settle for verbal advice - not chargeable.

All the best

Otto :cool:
 
I Have To Say Otto I Hope You Are Right But I Really Doubt It, I Think That Prosecutions Along With Revenue Will Rise (Hope To God Im Wrong But Cant See It Somehow) Anyway Thanks For The Prompt Reply, And All The Best To You.
 
Otto1485 said:
The costs quoted earlier are, by and large what HSE estimate them to be, dependent on the level of intervention required by HSE to put the problem right. The actual rate is based on £124.00 per hour (this was reduced from £133.00 per hour after consultation) - before anyone asks, inspectors don't get paid anything like £124.00 per hour - it is meant to include things like mileage and admin support costs.
Click to expand...

If they wont be making a profit at £124 an hour they must be doing something wrong....
 
I wonder if this new charge will be taken in to account during any court proceedings when they set the fine?
 
Hi AOM,

There will be no extra fees if any case goes to court. The Fee For Intervention stops when informations are laid (a prosecution is properly started). Both charges will be seperate.

From the point informations are laid then court costs take over.

Otto :cool:
 
Ok Otto, thanks for that. There seems to be a bit of concern from other members about this news. I can see the dangers (they are pretty obvious) we could be at the mercy of inspectors under pressure to hit targets much like the numerous numbers of bored police men sent out to catch speeders which could be argued as being a menace on our roads but the truth is they are an easy revenue raising soft target. I'm not saying that will happen but it could go that way very easily.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom