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Recently the HSE have been very present, some would say have they ever not been, but their increased presence is being felt by not only large companies but by sole traders and small business too, I give you my first example which is the sole trader, a local man from our area was fined over £2000 plus a cost of over £1900 because while working on a roof he used a ladder instead of a scaffold which would of cost him £1400 to £1500, in the long run, the sole trader should of spared the extra money and bought the scaffold, however, is it really fair to charge the man almost £4000 for something that could have been rectified so easily.

The main problem with the new fees and fines they can scale it appropriate towards the size of the job. However, that doesn’t mean that if you are a small business doesn’t mean that they won’t charge you outrageous fines and intervention fees. Now, in this case, yes the roofer should have done his work more safely but does the fine and fees out way what the message should have been.

Another example is a small coach company who had a lift installed had been going about his business the inspector came up and demanded he service his lift, without telling them exactly how to or where to go, the coach company continued on selling their services however because the coach company did not comply with their demand, partly because they didn’t want to another part they didn’t know how to. So they too were fined over £200,000 because they didn’t comply with this demand, now again people will say that this company should have complied, but this fine is reserved for larger businesses not smaller family run businesses which is what this coach company was.

Is this becoming a culture of slapping people with large unpayable fines just so the HSE can boost their coffers, or is this fair to do after all you are breaking the law and maybe this harsh punishment will make people think twice about doing such activities, how they should do said activities and how they do these activities? That does bring up another argument though if you have been taught a certain way your entire life, is it mandatory that you must now comply with a system that was never around when you were being trained. I think about the recent changes to the CDM regulations, a lot of people still do not realise what they have to do and even though we are the friendly approachable health and safety we still get traders who won’t do as we suggest even though we know the consequences of their actions, which will be a hefty fine and intervention fees.

This is why you need us, whether you have a Gold, Silver or Bronze package with us we can help you on any level giving you vital information and help whether that be over the phone, in an email or face to face. We are always here to help you with your health and safety needs and to make sure you don’t end with these horrifying fines and fees.

Thanks for reading and your time

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