Health and Safety Executive
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Health and safety cost recovery scheme to start in October 2012
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has recently confirmed that its cost recovery scheme, Fee for Intervention (FFI), will start on 1 October 2012 subject to Parliamentary approval.
New, detailed guidance has been published on HSE's website setting out how the scheme will work in practice. Developed in consultation with representatives from industry, it explains how FFI works and includes examples illustrating how it would be applied.
FFI recovers costs from those who break health and safety laws for the time and effort HSE spends helping to put matters right such as, investigating and taking enforcement action.
Law-abiding businesses will be free from costs and will not pay a fee.
Gordon MacDonald, HSE's programme director, said:
"Confirming the date for the start of Fee For Intervention and publishing the guidance will give dutyholders clarity and certainty about the start of the scheme and what they can expect.
"We have worked with industry representatives in shaping the final form of the scheme and the published guidance explains how the scheme will work and what businesses can do to comply with the law and avoid incurring a fee.
"It is right that those who break the law should pay their fair share of the costs to put things right - and not the public purse. Firms who manage workplace risks properly will not pay."
The HSE Board recommended the introduction of FFI to ministers in December 2011. HSE has completed a successful test run of the scheme in preparation for its start in October.
Notes to editors
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The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to prevent death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice, promoting training, new or revised regulations and codes of practice, and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk
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The Department for Work and Pensions announcement on cost recovery in March 2011 can be found online at http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/good-health-and-safety.pdf
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