20.04.2004

HSE warns against bogus mailshot

The UK's Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has urged companies and other organisations to ignore information they may receive from three firms purporting to regulate health and safety legislation.

HSE has said that it has received hundreds of complaints from companies across the country that have been sent requests for payment in return for compliance with health and safety law.

The three firms, all based in north-west England, have written to
companies all over Great Britain asking for between £125 and £249 to ensure they comply with health and safety law.

A Liverpool firm calling itself the Health and Safety Enforcement
Agency (HSEA) demands £125 for a health and safety compliance pack, while a Manchester-based Health and Safety Compliance Agency (HSCA) says that health and safety compliance register will become law on May 1, 2004, and that all businesses should apply for registration for a fee of £129.25. A third company, the Health and Safety Registration Enforcement Division (HSRED), which gives a Rochdale address, requests payments of up to £249 for health and safety registration.

The real HSE has warned that anyone receiving literature from any of these companies should ignore it, and there is no legal need for anyone to buy literature or services from these companies.

Justin McCracken, HSE's deputy directory general, said: "None of
these companies is connected to HSE. Organisations should be very wary of any approach from these firms, or any company 'offering' similar services. All three firms use wording suggesting they are official enforcement bodies, but they are not.

"HSE never writes indiscriminately to firms seeking advance payment for services which it has not provided. These companies are asking for significant sums of money, claiming they will send out information, much of which HSE provides free of charge," added Mr McCracken.

HSE is liaising with trading standards offices and the police, who
are investigating all three companies.