Some specialist construction contractors believe they are being used as a soft target by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) to fill the 35% hole left in its budget by government cuts.
They believe they are being unfairly targeted for the £124-an-hour Fees for Intervention (FFI) that the HSE introduced in October. The fees are charged if the HSE decides it is necessary to write to a company about a health & safety infringement.
The first FFI bills started landing on Directors’ desks at the end of January. The Health & Safety Executive says the sum being claimed from FFIs issued in the first two months of the scheme up to Christmas totals £727,644. It says 40% of the 903 companies that have received bills are construction companies – forming the largest single group receiving FFIs.
The Association of Interior Specialists, the National Association of Shopfitters and the Federation of Plastering & Drywall Contractors feel their members are being unfairly targeted and has asked the HSE for clarification of the scheme.
Stone Federation Chief Executive Jane Buxey says it is an issue the Federation is keeping an eye on. She says the Federation has worked closely with the HSE and hopes that relationship will not change – the Federation and HSE are staging another stone Safety & Health Awareness Day (SHAD) at APS Masonry in Oxfordshire on 20 March.
Jane says Stone Federation members have the comfort of a 24-hour Health & Safety Hotline to consultant Peter Robertshaw.
Peter told NSS he has not had any calls from stone companies to date but that he has had calls from those in other sectors.
He says all the cases he has so far seen have involved material breaches of health & safety regulations but that he can see how HSE Inspectors might now be tempted to issue notices rather than take the pragmatic and co-operative approach they have usually taken in the past.
HSE does not need to convict, or even charge, a business to issue an FFI invoice. If a company feels it did not contravene the law, it has 21 days to challenge the FFI. If it is still not happy, it has a further 21 days to lodge a dispute. But don’t forget, the longer the HSE spends on the case the more your bill will be if it wins.