The Health and Safety Executive yesterday announced that plans to charge farmers who break health and safety laws will go ahead. The Fee for Intervention (FFI) scheme, under which HSE inspectors will charge fines to recover their costs if they uncover a serious contravention of the law, is likely to be implemented in October.

According to guidance published by the HSE yesterday, the costs for farmers who are found to be in violation of health and safety law will be £124 per hour of inspection. Businesses which meet health and safety criteria will not be charged for inspection.

The scheme was proposed by the HSE last year and has been subject to consultation with industry stakeholders. Moving onto the next level of the scheme’s roll out, HSE programme director Gordon MacDonald said, “We have worked with industry representatives in shaping the final form of the scheme and the published guidance explains how the scheme will work and what businesses can do to comply with the law and avoid incurring a fee. 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. Firms who manage workplace risks properly will not pay.”

However, the NFU has objected to the plans; the union said the HSE had ignored alternatives it suggested and warned that “Estimated guideline figures seen by the NFU, show that costs could be in the region of £620 for an inspection and possibly double for service of a notice. This could be even higher where the HSE needs the opinion of a specialist third party consultant.”

The agriculture industry’s health and safety record has been consistently poor according to health and safety policy makers. The industry has the dubious honour of being the most dangerous in the UK; HSE figures released last year showed that between April 2010 and March 2011 there were 34 fatal injuries in agriculture and 221.9 major work related injuries per 100,000 employees.

NFU’s head of policy services, Andrew Clark, said in November, when last year’s statistics were unveiled, “The industry as a whole regards the current situation as unacceptable and we are acting together with the HSE to address the problem.”

Nevertheless, NFU regulatory affairs adviser Ben Ellis today said, “We understand the financial pressures that the HSE is under and are supportive of the principle that only offenders should pay. However, the NFU is concerned that the implementation of the scheme will create a quasi-legal system with an unfair appeal system.”

He pointed out that, in order to dispute a ticket, offenders will have to pay the cost of the appeals process at £124 per hour, a process Mr Ellis described as “a clear dis-incentive.” Costs will also be recovered under the new scheme even if an enforcement does not go through the courts.

Agriculture’s health and safety record is due in part to the conditions under which the industry operates; a large number of family run businesses, which see farmers working well past the age of retirement for other sectors, as well as a combination of long working hours, remote and sometimes hostile environs and work with animals all combine to increase risk. The NFU advisor claimed that “Many of our members are small, often family run businesses. If an accident occurs, this financial burden will only add to the great emotional and economic strain that the family is under.”

Uptake of farm safety initiatives has been growing steadily in the UK and training days, including Safety and Health Awareness Days, which operate around the country, are consistently well attended. The industry’s own ‘Farm Safety Partnership’ now comprises 25 partner organisations.

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