Let's get behind FFI

For now, the fee-for-intervention (FFI) cost recovery scheme is the only viable funding option for HSE and we need to make it work, says Roger Bibbings of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA)

October 1st is set to herald a significant change in how health and safety enforcement is administered and paid for. That’s because this is the date on which the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) fee-for-intervention (FFI) cost recovery scheme is proposed to come into effect.

The change â€" being brought about through the Health and Safety (Fees) Regulations 2012 â€" means that the HSE will be able to recover the costs of carrying out its regulatory functions from those who are found, in the opinion of an HSE inspector, to have contravened health and safety law in a way that is serious enough to require notification of that opinion in writing. This is what is known as a ‘material breach’ of health and safety law.

FFI applies to duty-holders where the HSE is the enforcing authority, including 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 e.g. partners. It covers public and limited companies, general, limited and limited liability partnerships and Crown and public bodies. Other organisations that enforce health and safety law, such as the police and local authorities, will not be able to recover their costs under FFI. The proposed FFI hourly rate for 2012/13 is £124, except for when the involvement of the Health and Safety Laboratory or a third party is required, in which case the actual costs of the work will be recovered. No VAT will be charged on FFI.

The political thinking behind FFI is that businesses and organisations that break health and safety laws should pay for the time spent by the HSE on investigating and taking enforcement action, while law-abiding businesses and organisations should be free from such costs. It is hoped that FFI will also encourage organisations to comply in the first place or to put matters right quickly in instances of non-compliance.

As with the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, about which there was much discussion a few years ago, organisations that take their health and safety obligations seriously have nothing to fear and it would be a very good thing if FFI did indeed prompt organisations to change their practices.

Although in some cases, FFI may prove to be administratively clunky and also change relationships between the HSE and dutyholders, RoSPA has supported it as the only viable funding option for the HSE. Its operation will no doubt be reviewed at some point, and there are other funding options that could be considered (insurance-based systems, for example) but, for now, one thing is certain â€" we all need to try to make FFI work.

In order to make FFI work, it’s important that the process is properly understood by all affected. To this end, the HSE has produced a document called ‘Guidance on the application of Fee for Intervention (FFI)’, which is available to download from www.hse.gov.uk/fee-for-intervention/. The document covers FFI in much more detail than we have space for here and I would encourage you to read it to make sure you’re fully up to speed on what is involved in the new scheme.

Among the subjects covered by the document are: FFI exemptions; the process through which FFI will work (including an explanation of a material breach and details of the charging regime, administrative arrangements and dispute and repayment procedures); a discussion of how FFI fits in with the HSE’s existing approach to enforcement; and examples of FFI in practice.