February 14, 2005—The UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) recently urged businesses across Britain to ignore all correspondence from a firm calling itself the “Health and Safety Registration Enforcement Division,” which has sent businesses requests for payment in order to achieve compliance with the law.
The requests, sent from a Bradford address and quoting 199 for registration if “compliant” or 249 if “non-compliant,” should be reported to HSE or to the police.
HSE says this agency is not connected to HSE and is not an official body and that it and similar offers should be ignored. Correspondence from the bogus agency has been received in Kent, Staffordshire, Cambridge, Bedfordshire, Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Durham, West Midlands, Northamptonshire, Surrey, and Sussex.
Any business receiving correspondence from the Health and Safety Registration Enforcement Division, or any such requests, should contact their local HSE office, HSE’s Infoline at 08701 545500, or West Yorkshire police at 01924 292 599.
HSE says it never writes indiscriminately to firms seeking advance payment for services. Many of the organization’s services are provided free of charge, and much of its guidance is on the HSE Web site. Basic information on health and safety for businesses is available online from HSE. For more detailed information, HSE’s Health and Safety Starter Pack: Health and Safety Advice and Guidance for New and Small Businesses [ISBN 0 7176 2738 1] is available for 30 from HSE Books.
