Human Resources Division

Health and Safety Administrative Payments

  1. Background
  2. Process
  3. Payment rates
  4. Summary
  5. Reference documents

1 Background

Further to the consultation exercise about the options for making payments for health and safety responsibilities (DSO, BSO, RPS LSO)1, the HR Committee decided, in line with the strong support from institutions, to simplify the administrative arrangements and provide a more co-ordinated approach to payments in future. The approach was approved by the General Board and Council and adopted from 1 October 2008.

Accordingly, payment levels are based on current headship payments, as shown on the tables below. These annual amounts will be paid monthly through the Payroll and up-rated automatically in line with cost-of-living increases.

As before, members of staff who undertake a safety-related role will not receive an administrative additional payment if they are the Head of Institution, or if responsibility for health and safety matters is normally included as part of the duties in the PD33 for their post.

Appendix 1 is a guidance document from the Safety Office (SO), setting out operational details, including timescales for departmental actions.

2 Process

Institutions need to determine, seeking guidance from the SO as appropriate, at which ‘level’ their staff carrying out these duties should be paid from 1 October, based on the size of the area they cover and type of work undertaken within the area. The level of payment institutions recommend are then passed to the relevant HR Business Manager/Adviser via the SO (using the payment form sent to institutions by the SO). Please note that some of the revised figures may be lower than those paid to staff carrying out these health and safety duties under the procedure prior to 1 October 2008; their current payment level will be frozen until the new rate catches up. However, the new rates apply to all staff newly taking up these duties.

Once the HR Business Manager/Adviser has agreed an institution's rates, they will ask institutions to write to staff undertaking these duties, advising them of the level of payment that they will receive (using the standard letter) and copying in the HR Division so that appropriate arrangements can be made to commence payment. The relevant ‘appointment letter’ based on the models available on the SO website, should also be given to the member of staff at that time. Monthly payments to the relevant member of staff will then continue until further notice, automatically uprated in line with nationally negotiated increases, without any further notification required from you.

The level (4, 3, 2 or 1) assigned to these health and safety duties in each institution need only be reviewed should the size or work of the institution change significantly.

If a member of staff ceases to undertake duties the institution should advise HR Division (using a CHRIS/50 form) so that arrangements can be made to cancel their payments.

3 Payment rates

(As at 1 October 2010.)

Payments are made as a proportion of the basic professorial salary, point 68. This is analogous to the payments made to Heads of Department as outlined in Ordinances concerning additional payments (S&O 2010, p676 et seq).

Departmental Safety Officers (DSOs)
Level Basis for calculation Amount (£pa)
4 (low regulatory effort) 15% of 2.5% of point 68 2422
3 (high regulatory effort) 15% of 5% of point 68 485
Other Safety Officers (BSO, RPS, LSO)
Level Basis for calculation Amount (£pa)
3 (low regulatory effort) 15% of 5% of point 68 4853
2 (medium regulatory effort) 15% of 7.5% of point 68 727
1 (high regulatory effort) 15% of 10% of point 68 970

4 Summary

This process removes the need for the completion of termly payment forms requesting payments to be made to staff performing these duties, and should reduce the volume of correspondence. Payment by monthly instalments also ensures that staff are not under/over paid depending on when they start/stop performing these health and safety duties. Any queries about financial provision for these payments should be directed to Finance Managers.

Finally, please note that arrangements for other non-pensionable additional payments for administrative responsibility remain the same (annual review and termly payments).

5 Reference documents

Footnotes

  1. These payments are covered by the regulations governing additional payments for administrative responsibility (Statutes and Ordinances, p647 et seq)
  2. A member of staff already carrying out this duty would be paid at current annual figure (2007/08) for DSO of £268 pa. Current payment level frozen until the new rate catches up.
  3. A member of staff already carrying out this duty would be paid at current annual figure (2007/08) for BSO/RPS/LSO of £660 pa. Current payment level frozen until the new rate catches up.