SMS Environmental | Water Treatment Services | Expert water treatment services to reduce equipment down time and repair

Fee for intervention (FFI)

If you are found to be in material breach of health and safety law, you will have to pay for the time it takes us to identify the breach and help you put things right. This includes investigating and taking enforcement action and is called fee for intervention (FFI).

Under The Health and Safety (Fees) Regulations 2012, those who break health and safety laws are liable for recovery of HSE’s related costs, including inspection, investigation and taking enforcement action. This enables the HSE to recover the cost of a visit to any premises where a ‘material breach’ has been identified. A material breach is:

No legionella risk assessment in place
No appointed person to manage equipment deemed to be a legionella risk
Lack of documentation for legionella monitoring programme
Signs of organic contamination or scale in a water system

* The current FFI hourly rate is £154. The fee will include the costs covering the time of the entire original visit. The total amount recovered will be based on the amount of time it takes HSE to identify the breach and help you put things right (including associated office work), multiplied by the hourly rate.

Since its introduction in 2012, £2.8 Million has been invoiced to UK businesses and organisations. This emphasises the importance of organisations being proactive in their approach to safety and prioritising health and safety compliance.