
![]() |
Georgina Bisby
Acting Editor |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
Home> | Health, Safety & Welfare | >Safety Management | >FFI working effectively |
FFI working effectively
23 September 2014
A scheme designed to shift the cost of regulating workplace health and safety from the public purse to businesses who break the law has proven effective and should stay, an independent report has concluded.

The report recognised that inspectors at the Health and Safety Executive have implemented ‘Fee for Intervention’ (FFI) consistently and fairly since it started in October 2012, and found no evidence to suggest that enforcement policy decisions had been influenced in any way by its introduction.
The independent panel which conducted the review was chaired by Alan Harding, professor of public policy at Liverpool University. Other participants were representatives of the GMB trade union, the Federation of Small Businesses and the Department for Work and Pensions.
According to the report’s authors, the professional approach adopted by HSE’s inspectors has ensured any challenges raised by the scheme during its first 18 months were minimised. The evidence suggests the concerns voiced about FFI have not manifested themselves to any significant or serious extent and that ‘generally inspectors and dutyholders continue to work together in improving health and safety management’.
Judith Hackitt, chair of HSE, said: "Both HSE and the Government believe it is right that those who fail to meet their legal health and safety obligations should pay our costs, and acceptance of this principle is growing. This review gives us confidence that FFI is working effectively and should be retained. We will continue to monitor the performance of Fee for Intervention to ensure it remains consistent and fair.”
The report, along with associated research papers, concludes that "it (FFI) has proven effective in achieving the overarching policy aim of shifting the cost of health and safety regulation from the public purse to those businesses who break health and safety laws.”
It also concludes that:
- Fears that FFI would be used to generate revenue have proven to be unfounded.
- While not popular with some inspectors and dutyholders, it has been embedded effectively and applied consistently.
- There is no viable alternative that can achieve the same aims.
The report can be found on HSE’s website: www.hse.gov.uk/fee-for-intervention/
- Tata Steel fined £1.4m after health and safety failings lead to death of worker
- Steel firm fined over death at foundry
- Timber firm in court after worker’s loses part of finger
- Arms entangled in prop shaft
- HSE: Manufacturing deaths fall
- Car parts manufacturer fined £1.6 million
- Valero Energy UK fined £5 million after fatal oil explosion
- Siemens and RWE Innogy fined after turbine death
- Young engineer killed by falling pipework
- Football club fined after roof repair fall