UK: Merchants that contravene health and safety laws could have to pay £133 an hour for HSE inspectors investigating their offences under government plans to recover the cost of administration.
UK: Merchants that contravene health and safety laws could have to pay £133 an hour for HSE inspectors investigating their offences under government plans to recover the cost of administration.
The Health and Safety Executive has launched a consultation on plans to recover costs of improvement and prohibition notices to recover £43.6m annually across all industries.
The cost recovery plan could be introduced as early as next April.
Gordon MacDonald, HSE's programme director, said: "The Government has agreed that 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.
"These proposals provide a further incentive for people to operate within the law, levelling the playing field between those who comply and those who don't. Compliant firms will not pay a penny in intervention fees."
