Introduced in October 2012, the FFI scheme was brought in to help improve health and safety on site, encourage better health and safety practices and to shift the cost of regulating workplace health and safety from the public purse to businesses which break the law.
An independent report has also found that FFI has proven effective since its introduction and should therefore stay.
FFI rules are implemented if a material breach of health and safety law is found - where the inspector believes there has been a contravention of health and safety law that is serious enough to require them to notify businesses in writing. If so then the builder in question would receive a fine.
The fee payable by dutyholders found to be in material breach of the law is £124 per hour and the HSE has now capped its FFI income to top £23million in this financial year, indicating its commitment to punish firms that fall foul of any health and safety law.
Joanna Mulgrew marketing director at building software specialist company HBXL is now warning builders up and down the country to make sure they comply with all their health and safety obligations.
Joanna said: “It’s clear that HSE is continuing to take the FFI initiative very seriously. The figures speak for themselves and with the budget set so high clearly shows that there will be no let up.
“The fact of the matter still remains that all building firms, no matter how small, have a duty of care to their employees and the general public. As far as reasonably possible, they must safe guard the health, safety and welfare of all on site. That’s the law!
“Of course the prevention of death, injury and ill health to those at work and those affected by work activities is paramount.
“The upshot is companies need to take extra care in the running of their businesses to ensure that law breaches do not occur. This is how any financial penalty can be reduced or eliminated.
“If firms took a few simple steps to boost their in-house health and safety policies a lot of these fines would be completely avoided.”
According to Joanna one of the best ways to avoid a hefty fine is to use HBXL’s Health & Safety Xpert software that provides all health and safety paperwork required on any job at the push of a button
Ready for review and implementation on site it encourages an active approach to health and safety. All users have to do is tell Health & Safety Xpert what they are building and it simply does the rest.
The software then automatically producing Company Health & Safety Policies, Risk Assessments and COSHH Assessments forms required by the HSE. It also produces Method Statement and Construction Phase Health & Safety Plans templates ready to be tailored by the builder.
It has already proved to have saved builders huge amounts of time, quickly guiding them through the crucial paper work that’s required under current UK law, including the Health & Safety At Work Act 1974 and Construction Design Management (CDM) Regulations 2007.
Joanna added: “I continue to urge builders and contractors to make the most of software packages like Health & Safety Xpert. It enables builders to keep pace with ever stricter compliance requirements and it’s infinitely cheaper than a fine and more importantly helps prevent those working on site getting injured.”
For further information on Health & Safety Xpert or any HBXL product please call T: 0845 1234 065 or visit the web site www.hbxl.co.uk
