As it can be seen above, the fees will be broken down into two types - Assessment Fees and Annual Fees. The assessment process and annual fee for the first year will be charged separately because it cannot be assumed that all companies/organisations who apply to become an Approved Supplier would satisfy the assessment process and meet the criteria set by the Census organisations.
The fees will all be recalculated each year by re-costing using the same criteria and tasks. All Approved Suppliers will be given written notice of any change in the fees.
The fees allow for the Approved Suppliers to make various queries about the scheme during the year. However, if any Approved Supplier consistently (weekly or more often) contact the Census organisations with queries about the scheme, the Census organisations reserve the right to re-negotiate charges and membership. The additional charge, covering the unexpected work, would be added to the relevant Approved Supplier's next annual fee. Please note this would only apply to queries raised in the second and subsequent years and only to queries relating directly to the Approved Suppliers scheme. Queries regarding Census output would not be deemed to be relating directly to the scheme.
Assessment Fee
This will be charged up front and will be due whether or not the company satisfies the assessment process, meeting the criteria set by the Census organisations. This fee includes all the administration work from the time the initial application is received until the final decision is made and the applicant informed of the outcome. This fee does not cover exceptional circumstances when the applicant does not have a head office or regional office in the UK. Alternative arrangements will be considered and/or negotiated with the pricing implications being accounted for when negotiating arrangements.
Annual Fees
These can be divided into two types:
The first years annual fee
Companies who become Approved Suppliers will receive an invoice for the first year's annual fee after they have been informed that they meet the criteria set by the Census organisations. This fee does not include any of the fees associated with a monitoring visit, as the organisation will have been visited during the Assessment process. It does, however, include fees associated with the creating of the user guide and web links, expected annual queries, monitoring and general administrative work.
The annual fee for the second and subsequent years
The annual fee for the second and subsequent years may be altered to reflect the costs involved in the scheme once it is up and running. All Approved Suppliers will be kept informed of the reasons for any change. This fee includes the fees associated with one annual visit, promotional updates, a reduced number of annual queries, monitoring and general administrative work.
One invoice for the annual fees will be sent each year unless the Approved Supplier has applied to pay the fees quarterly or half-yearly.
Census News
