Rank: Super forum user 
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Two points on the proposed charging system
1. If you dispute a charge after receiving a letter from a HSE Inspector - what will happen if you are more qualified than an inspector and dispute his/her opinion that may be misguided or even incorrect?
2. As Local Authorities are responsible for H&S in over half of all work places will the local authority Environmental Health Inspectors be able to levy the same charges for H&S issues - if the answer is yes how many food hygiene inspections will become h&S inspections?
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Rank: Super forum user
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My understanding of the situation, based on the HSE consultative documentation (and I am willing to be proved wrong!) is that:
1. If you dispute a letter or Improvement Notice this objection will be evaluated by the HSE's own panel. There is no automatic provision for an external evaluation of the validity of the HSE inspector's judgement. You would have the right to have your objection heard in court, but think of the cost of this.
2. At present local authorities are not included in the scheme. It has, however, been mooted that they may be included at some future date.
Chris
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Rank: Forum user
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Meden: As proposed, if you dispute the letter or inspector's view (it may not even be a letter) the matter is referred to some sort of internal HSE procedure (undefined) which sounds suspiciously like asking the principal inspector to support his junior's stance. For this it is proposed you'll be charged a x2 the rate for the time it takes. There's no basis for any consultation or independent appraisal. Your views won't be considered in the scramble to charge your employer.
Alternately (it seems to me) you can just refuse to pay, in which case it'll be heard by the civil courts as part of a debt recovery case. This would be costly but I believe there would be grounds to have the HSE's charges deemed Ultra Vires, and thrown out, if they exceed the actual employment costs of the inspector, which they would.
LA's aren't included and this is only one of a huge number of issues with this ill-considered initiative. Including them raises another can of worms about consistencey, appeals, etc etc.
Actually we haven't even seen the actual text of the new Regulation so it is very difficult to make accurate observations based on the HSE's rather vague and rambling proposal.
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Rank: Super forum user
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With regards LA's - the 100's of council's out there have 100''s of different administration set ups unlike the HSE - simpler to introduce the process of charges - once they figure this out I'm pretty confident that charges will come into effect, only a matter of time.
I can think of many reasons why it will be an headache, unfair, disproportionate etc but I'm an optimist - let's wait and see - if you are a large organization take the Primary Authority approach. I feel if charges ever come in this will offer some level of protection and appeal against any 'unfairness'.
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