HSE’s Fee For Intervention (FFI) scheme has been active since the 1st October and many businesses have already been affected.  The scheme allows HSE to charge businesses for their time at the rate, currently, of £124 per hour when a ‘material breach’ of health and safety is discovered.

However, the proportion of the fee that will actually go back to HSE may be lower than it had initially hoped.

HSE programme director, Gordon MacDonald, has revealed that HSE will now keep less than half of the projected £37 million which will be raised during FFI’s first year with the remainder going straight to the Treasury for other projects.

The concern is that HSE is currently in the middl of an £80m budget cut, over a third of its original budget.  There was the thought that this cut could be placed by FFI income.  If the HSE are only permitted to retain a small proportion of the income – just £17m of the £37m in the first year, then, surely, pressure will be felt to increase the overall level of fee under the scheme to sure the jobs of colleagues?

The figures rise in year two to £23m of an estimated £39m but the revenue lost still puts HSE some way behind its original budget, over £40m behind…

However, it seems that the HSE cut of the income is set and cannot exceed this £17m and £23m amounts in years one and two, if this is the case then there would be not incentive for HSE to operate the scheme at a level above the base expectation of £37m.  This would mean that any planned increase in the numbers of inspectors and inspections would be impossible given continuing budget cuts.

The next few months will bring more news and, as ever, little is cast in stone and we’ll keep you updated on this issue as more news comes through.