The Health and Safety Executive has launched a consultation on plans to recover costs of improvement and prohibition notices.

HSE bosses hope the plan will recover £43.6m annually across all industries.

The cost recovery plan could be introduced as early as next April.

Gordon MacDonald, HSE’s programme director, said: “The Government has agreed that 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.

“These proposals provide a further incentive for people to operate within the law, levelling the playing field between those who comply and those who don’t. Compliant firms will not pay a penny in intervention fees.