The Board’s fees explained

Aleyna Hall, Chief Executive of the Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board, addresses some commonly asked questions around how it sets its fees, along with how it compares with other sectors.

AUTHOR: ALEYNA HALL, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, PLUMBERS, GASFITTERS AND DRAINLAYERS BOARD

It is fair and reasonable to expect the costs of licence fees, and the disciplinary and offences levy to withstand close scrutiny. The Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board (the Board) welcomes the opportunity to provide an explanation of our fees.

How does the Board determine what licence fees will be? All practitioner fees are calculated on a full cost recovery basis. By law, the Board can only charge practitioners a fee that will cover the costs of the service the fee relates to. That means if practitioners are charged $100 to renew their practising licences, that is what it costs the Board to provide licence renewal services.

Why is there a difference between the Board’s fees and those for other trades, such as electricians and builders? Our Board is a separate and independent entity, and the fees need to fund all Board activities. This differs from the Boards representing electricians and builders, which sit within the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). Being inside MBIE brings the advantage of having access to a lot of resources, such as lawyers, investigators, and advisers.

Builders and electricians also share services between themselves. They have a shared Registrar. They both also get funding from the Crown through the Licensed Building Practitioners and Electrical Workers Levy, which comes from an appropriation to MBIE from the government.

Both also receive funding for their disciplinary and prosecutions functions: builders from the Building Levy and electricians from the Electricity and Gas Levy. The Board does not have access to MBIE or any other government resources. It does not share costs with another regulated occupation. It does not receive funding from any independent levy.

Practitioners’ fees alone must fund all Board activity, all Board staff, and all Board infrastructure. This is not a Board choice. It is because this is how the Plumbers, Gasfitters, and Drainlayers Act 2006 sets out how the Board must operate.

What about the disciplinary and offences levy? The levy is different from, and separate from, the licence fee. It is payable at the same time as when a practitioner renews their licence, but it is not part of the licence fee.

When you compare the actual cost of a licence for a plumber, gasfitter, or drainlayer with electricians and builders, our sector is paying the least to renew their licences at $100 per trade. This is despite the fact they must fully fund the entire licence renewal service themselves.

The disciplinary and offences levy is also calculated on a full cost recovery basis. The levy must cover the costs of enquiries, complaints, investigations, disciplinary hearings, District Court prosecutions, appeals, and debt recovery arising from disciplinary penalties and costs orders.

The Board is required to predict what the costs of all these activities will be in a year in order to set the disciplinary and offences levy for the coming three years. This is extremely difficult to do. The Board is very aware of the concerns practitioners have about having to pay the levy and tries to keep it as low as possible. However, by law the Board must ensure that the health and safety of the public is protected from incompetent and unlawful work, so it is essential that it has sufficient funds to carry out this work.

It may help to understand some of reasons why the disciplinary and offences levy is the amount it is. The Board has very limited control over many of the things the levy must fund. The Board cannot control: the numbers of enquiries and complaints it receives in any year how many will need to be investigated how many will result in a hearing or prosecution how those hearings will proceed (eg, defended or not) how many will be appealed how many practitioners will refuse to pay their fines and costs.

The complaints, investigations and disciplinary processes are also really resource intensive. Almost half of all the Board’s staff are involved in carrying out this work. We also have a number of external people carrying out aspects of this work, such as locating people, serving documents, and providing expert legal and technical advice. This work takes a lot of time and can be complicated and challenging in some cases.

Why do I have to pay? It is a legal requirement to pay fees and the levy under the Plumbers, Gasfitters, and Drainlayers Act.

It is common across many regulated occupations for the regulated people to have to have a disciplinary process for dealing with unacceptable work or conduct. However, the Board acknowledges that plumbers, gasfitters, and drainlayers are also required to pay to prosecute the unauthorised ‘cowboys’ in the industry. Again, this is because the law says we must do this. This does not seem to apply to other regulated occupations and doesn’t apply to building and electrical work, both of which get funding from various levies to pay for or subsidise this work.

The Board has on a number of occasions requested funding for this function but has been unsuccessful. The Board will continue to apply for funding to subsidise this work.

WHO’S WHO

The Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board (PGDB) is a statutory body that safeguards the health and safety of people, their property and environment by regulating the plumbing, gasfitting, and drainlaying trades, registering people, and ensuring those carrying out regulated work are competent to do so. www.pgdb.co.nz

The PGDB is quite separate from Master Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers NZ, which is a business membership organisation governed by the Board of Master Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers NZ Inc. www.masterplumbers.org.nz