What Our Lovely Clients Say
HSE - The
Cost of Intervention
HSE’s Fee for Intervention rate is £163 per hour.
When an inspector finds a material breach on your site, you are billed for every hour they spend investigating.
A typical noise-related finding costs between £1,000 and £5,000 in FFI charges alone, before any fine is considered.
Noise Inspection Campaign
In the HSE’s 2024/25 national noise inspection campaign, 75% of noisy workplaces failed basic compliance.
95% of employers had not verified whether their hearing protection actually worked.
The West Midlands, as one of the UK’s densest manufacturing corridors, is squarely in HSE’s sights.
The Pioneer Making Workplace Hearing Tests Simple
Mark Ashmore (RHAD, MIOA) revolutionised UK workplace hearing surveillance with 30 years' experience in the hearing arena serving and more recently on British Standards committees for hearing protection (PH/7) and acoustics hearing committee(EH/1).
Realising that take up of hearing health surveillance was hampered by cost, accessibility and logistic concerns Mark created something radical: the UK's first self-service audiometric testing system that anyone can use.
His patented "Turn-up & Test" solution:
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Sends a complete testing kit to your workplace
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Designed to enable a nominated individual within your company to run tests with minimal training – the test is intuitive
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Works 24/7 - perfect for night shifts, weekends, new starters
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Includes expert review - Mark's team personally reviews every single test result
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Delivers instant compliance - UKCA certified, MHRA registered, fully HSE compliant
The calibrated headset connects to any computer. Your staff follow simple on-screen instructions. Results are emailed instantly. Mark's team reviews everything and provides HSE-compliant documentation.
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Protect Your Team
Avoid HSE Fines
Stay Compliant
Workplace Hearing Tests in the West Midlands.
HSE hearing health surveillance for employers across Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton, Dudley, Walsall, and Solihull.
The West Midlands is one of the UK’s most concentrated manufacturing corridors, with automotive, metal fabrication, and precision engineering employers operating across Birmingham, Coventry, and the Black Country.
Noise levels in these environments regularly exceed 85 dB(A), triggering mandatory hearing health surveillance under the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005.
What HSE Found in Manufacturing 2025/2026
HSE manufacturing prosecutions (2025) - 53
Total fines levied (2025) - £7.7 million
Fee for Intervention (Per Hour) - £163
Average fine per prosecution - £146,000
Free - Confidential - Instant
West Midland News
Keeping you in the loop whilst protecting your business from HSE enforcements in the West Midlands.
3 February 2026
"Doing our annual hearing tests this way saved quite a lot of money this year. I scheduled the tests one month in advance, but one of the guys was sick on the day.
I still had the headset when he came back to work and got the job done with minimum fuss and no extra cost. Highly recommended."
Bruce Blackman
Complete Tree Care
31 January 2026
"The hearing test kit is very simple to set up and use.
Being able to administer the test ourselves was a great help at reducing the downtime of staff and fitted nicely into our working day.
Mark is always on hand to help with any issues, would highly recommend."
Karl Foster
Boward Tree Surgery
2 February 2026
"Working with Hear 4 The Long Term has given Encore a greater flexibility for delivering hearing tests to employees.
Getting a baseline for new employees can be done with ease and the equipment can be transported within our three production facilities. We no longer have to rely on set days to deliver hearing tests in bulk.
I would recommend Hear 4 The Long Term to any employer having to deliver hearing tests to employees."
Rob Hickey
The Encore Group
3 February 2026
"Having worked with Hear 4 The Long Term on their website and digital strategy, we've seen first-hand how Mark Ashmore's service stands apart in the UK workplace hearing test market.
As an HCPC-registered audiologist with decades of experience, Mark has built a system that makes occupational hearing testing more accessible and significantly more cost-effective than traditional mobile audiometry providers.
H4TLT covers everything from baseline hearing tests and HSE hearing surveillance to earplug fit testing — all with qualified audiologist oversight and full regulatory compliance. If you're looking for the best value workplace hearing tests in the UK, this is it."
Dan Cartwright
Scopesite Digital Studios
4 February 2026
"I'm delighted to be working with Mark on a major music hearing protection project in the public sector. His products are an important part of the risk mitigation and ongoing management of the work being delivered."
Giles Morgan
Nimrod CS & Palmyra
It's Your Turn Now, Try The Compliance Check Below
Establish compliant hearing baselines for every new starter. Pre-calibrated headset connects to any PC enabling your nominated individual to run the test for every new starter at induction. Fully compliant with Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005. Results instantly documented for HSE records.
Verify your hearing protection actually works. Test confirms each employee's earplugs deliver the required attenuation - no more guessing if PPE is effective. The test takes less than five minutes and immediately identifies where effectiveness is reduced due to poor insertion. Pass/fail results prove effectiveness and protect against industrial deafness claims.
Your complete workplace audiometric hearing health surveillance solution. Patented 'Turn-up & Test' system needs no qualifications or audiologist involvement. Test night shifts, weekends, remote sites - whenever suits your operation. UKCA marked, MHRA registered. The only self-service system that guarantees HSE compliance.
Not Sure Which Test You Need?
Our free quick compliance check identifies exactly what testing your workplace requires. Results display straight away - no waiting, no email sign-up, no sales pressure.
Just clear guidance to help you keep your workers safe.
All responses are confidential and never shared outside H4TLT.
FAQ Section
Industrial Hearing Tests in the South West of England
Any employer with workers exposed to noise at or above 85 dB(A) must provide hearing health surveillance under the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005. The West Midlands has one of the UK’s densest manufacturing corridors, so this commonly applies to automotive manufacturing, metal fabrication and stamping, precision engineering, plastics processing, and foundry operations across Birmingham, Coventry, and the Black Country. The legal requirement is UK-wide but these are the West Midlands industries where exposure is most frequent.
Equipment sent on-site, no need for an audiologist to visit.
No, and that removes the biggest cost barrier for West Midlands manufacturers. Traditional mobile audiometry services charge day rates of £1,000 to £1,700 because they send a van and a technician. Hear 4 The Long Term sends a pre-calibrated headset instead. Your nominated person runs the test, and every result is reviewed by Mark Ashmore, an HCPC-registered audiologist with over 30 years’ experience. For West Midlands manufacturers running multiple shifts, this means testing can happen at 2am on a Tuesday if that suits your production schedule.
Hear 4 The Long Term are the cheapest in the United Kingdom
HSE hearing surveillance starts from £10 per test. Earplug fit testing starts from £3 per test. Baseline hearing tests for new starters start from £9 per test. These prices are the same nationwide with no regional surcharges, no travel fees, and no minimum bookings. Use the Compliance Checker for an exact quote based on your workforce size.
Night shift doesn't have to come back in during the daytime for hearing tests!
Yes. The system works 24/7 because there is no audiologist who needs to be physically present. Your nominated person can run tests during any shift, day or night, weekday or weekend. For West Midlands manufacturers running continuous production across two or three shifts, this means you can test workers during their actual shift rather than pulling them off the line during days to wait for a van.
The evidence is in the steps you take to mitigate the risk.
The West Midlands is squarely in HSE’s sights as one of the UK’s most concentrated manufacturing regions. In November 2025, Tarmac Building Products in the West Midlands was fined £633,300 at Walsall Crown Court. Bridgnorth Aluminium was fined £300,000 at Cannock Magistrates in October 2025. While these were not noise-specific prosecutions, HSE’s 2025/26 inspection priorities explicitly list noise and vibration exposure in manufacturing as a target theme. Nationally, 75% of noisy workplaces failed compliance in the 2024/25 campaign.
Areas We Cover
Hear 4 The Long Term provides workplace hearing tests to employers across the West Midlands, including:
Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton, Dudley, Walsall, Solihull and surrounding areas.
Since our testing is delivered online through a self-service platform, there are no travel charges and no minimum booking requirements. If you have a computer and an internet connection, you can test.