Notices, investigations and Fee for Intervention, UK wide
HSE Enforcement Support
An inspector's visit does not end when the inspector leaves. What follows is a notice with a date on it, an invoice for the inspector's time or a letter asking someone to attend an interview. Every one of those carries a clock. AL23 Safety provides the technical work behind your response, from proving a notice has been complied with to challenging what has been charged, for clients UK wide.
What is HSE enforcement support?
Technical help once a regulator is already involved
Enforcement support is the work that starts once a contravention has been identified. That might be an improvement notice, a prohibition notice, a notification of contravention with an FFI invoice behind it, an investigation after a RIDDOR report or an invitation to interview under caution.
Our part is technical. We establish what the real failure was, what an adequate remedy looks like, whether the evidence supports the allegation and what the inspector needs before closing the file. Where the underlying event needs proper analysis, that work sits on our incident investigation page.
Be clear on the boundary. AL23 Safety is a health and safety consultancy and not a firm of solicitors. We do not give legal advice, we do not advise on plea and we cannot create legal privilege. Those are matters for your lawyers. Where prosecution is realistic your solicitor instructs us. The work then sits inside their conduct of the case.
Who needs one
Anyone holding a piece of paper from a regulator with a deadline on it
- An improvement notice has been served and the compliance date is approaching
- A prohibition notice has stopped an activity, immediately or on deferred terms
- A notification of contravention has arrived and an FFI invoice is expected
- HSE or the local authority has opened an investigation after an injury or dangerous occurrence
- Someone has been asked to attend an interview under caution
- An insurer, principal contractor or framework client has found a notice on the public register
The regulations that apply
Your legal framework, in plain terms
Enforcement powers come from the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Sections 21 and 22 create the two notice types and section 33 makes breach of either a criminal offence. Fee for Intervention is HSE's cost recovery scheme rather than a fine. Sentencing follows the Sentencing Council definitive guideline on health and safety offences, corporate manslaughter and food safety and hygiene offences, in force since 1 February 2016.
Improvement notice, section 21
Served where the inspector believes there is a contravention or a likely repetition. It specifies the breach and allows at least 21 days to remedy it. Work may continue meanwhile. An appeal to the Employment Tribunal must be lodged within 21 days. That appeal suspends the notice until it is determined or withdrawn.
Prohibition notice, section 22
Served where there is a risk of serious personal injury, taking effect immediately or on a deferred basis. The activity must stop. An appeal must also be lodged within 21 days. That appeal does not suspend the notice unless the Tribunal directs otherwise.
Breach of a notice
A criminal offence carrying, on indictment, an unlimited fine and up to two years imprisonment. Failure to comply is treated far more seriously than the original contravention.
The public register
Both notice types are published on HSE's public register of enforcement notices for five years. Buyers, insurers and prequalification assessors read it.
Fee for Intervention and what actually triggers it
FFI is charged at £188 per hour from 1 April 2026. The trigger is a material breach, meaning a contravention the inspector judges serious enough to be written down formally and communicated through a notification of contravention. Verbal or written advice alone does not trigger a charge.
Recoverable time is broader than most people expect. It covers the visit, report writing, specialist input, worker interviews and any later investigation or enforcement work until the matter concludes. FFI applies only where HSE rather than the local authority is the enforcing authority. Disputes begin as an informal query, then move to the formal Queries and Disputes Process decided by two HSE senior managers plus an independent representative.
What a conviction is worth under the guideline
The court fixes culpability as very high, high, medium or low, then a harm category from 1 to 4 from the seriousness of the harm risked and the likelihood of it happening. Turnover selects the table. Large means £50m and over, medium £10m to £50m, small £2m to £10m and micro £2m and under.
Two examples give the scale. A large organisation at high culpability and harm category 1 has a starting point of £2.4m within a range of £1.5m to £6m. A small organisation at very high culpability and harm category 1 starts at £450,000 within a range of £300,000 to £1.6m. From 1 June 2025 the guideline hardened for very large organisations. Courts should now consider a fine outside the large organisation range rather than merely finding it necessary to move outside it. No numeric turnover threshold defines one.
What the service covers
From reading the notice to closing the file
- Reading the notice properly, checking the dutyholder named, the premises, the provision cited and the schedule of contravention
- A technical view on whether the notice is well founded and the compliance date achievable, before the 21 day appeal deadline
- The remedial plan that will actually satisfy the notice, covering physical works, system changes and evidence
- FFI invoice review against work identifiable in the record, then support through the Queries and Disputes Process
- Technical evidence gathering during an investigation, preserved to your solicitor's instructions
- Factual and technical briefing before an interview under caution, never in place of legal representation
- Mitigation evidence for sentencing, covering remediation completed, cooperation given and systems changed
- A post-notice audit of the wider site, since inspectors return and rarely look only at what they wrote down
- Expert evidence where the court needs an independent technical opinion, covered on our expert witness services page
Our process
Triaged the same day, then closed properly
- 01
Same day triage
We establish what was served, when it was served and what deadline is now running. The 21 day appeal window is checked first, since it cannot be recovered once it has passed.
- 02
Technical review
We test the alleged contravention against the conditions, the equipment and the records. Sometimes the inspector is right. Sometimes the notice describes a breach the evidence does not support.
- 03
Remedial plan
We set out what must be done, in what order, by whom and by when, separating what closes the notice from what prevents a repeat.
- 04
Response and closure
We compile the evidence, draft the return to the inspector and handle follow-up questions until the notice is confirmed as complied with.
- 05
Prevent the next one
Enforcement rarely concerns one isolated failure. We audit the surrounding arrangements so a return visit finds a different picture, drawing on our health and safety audits work.
What you get
The evidence an inspector needs to close it
- A written technical opinion saying plainly whether the notice is well founded and whether an appeal has technical merit
- A notice by notice compliance plan with actions, owners, dates and the evidence needed to close each one
- A compliance evidence pack ready for the inspector, with photographs, records and sign-offs indexed
- An FFI review note setting out the hours charged, what they relate to and where a query is worth raising
- A short briefing note for directors, insurers and clients explaining the position without overstating it
What we need from you
The papers, the access and a straight account
- Every document served by the regulator, unedited, covering the notice, the notification of contravention and all correspondence
- Contact details for your solicitor where one is instructed, since we work to their direction from the outset
- Site access and access to the people who were present, before memories and conditions change
- A candid account of what actually happens on site. We cannot fix a version of events that will not survive scrutiny
Why AL23 Safety
We know what actually closes a file
Accountable
If the notice is right we say so and get you compliant. Fighting a well founded notice wastes the time you need for remediation.
We know what closes a file
Inspectors want evidence, not intentions. We build the return around what satisfies the contravention.
Technical, not legal
We are consultants rather than solicitors. We say so before you ask. Where privilege matters we take instruction through your lawyers.
UK wide
We respond to enforcement matters for clients across the UK from our Manchester base, including short notice site attendance.
If a notice has landed
Call before the 21 day window closes
Send us the notice and tell us what happened. We will give you an initial read the same day, including whether the deadline is realistic. No obligation and no pressure.
Common questions
Answers, up front
Cannot see your question? Get in touch and we will answer it directly.
Contact usThat depends on which notice it is and what the evidence shows. An appeal against an improvement notice must reach the Employment Tribunal within 21 days and it suspends the notice until determined or withdrawn. An appeal against a prohibition notice must also be lodged within 21 days, though it does not suspend the notice. We give the technical view on whether the alleged breach stands up. The decision to appeal is one for you and your solicitor.
The inspector sets the period and it cannot be shorter than 21 days. Many run longer, matched to the work involved. Where the remedy takes longer than the date allows, ask the inspector in writing for an extension before the notice expires. Letting the date pass and explaining afterwards is how a contravention becomes a prosecution.
The register carries improvement and prohibition notices for five years. Complying does not remove the entry, since it records that the notice was served. Where an appeal succeeds the notice is cancelled, which is one of the few sound reasons to appeal something you could otherwise comply with. Most clients are better served by holding a clear remediation record for the buyers who read the register.
No. AL23 Safety provides technical health and safety support. We are not solicitors, we do not advise on plea or liability and our work does not attract legal privilege on its own. Where prosecution is in prospect, ask your solicitor to instruct us so the technical work sits within their conduct of the matter.
Enforcement work is priced by the scale of the response rather than by the notice. A single improvement notice on one site is a small piece of work. A fatality investigation running alongside a police enquiry is not. Our published pay as you go rates are £95 per hour or £695 per day plus VAT. Call with the notice in front of you and we will scope it honestly, within 24 hours of your enquiry.
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