What is the State Foundation for the Prevention of Occupational Risks?
The State Foundation for Occupational Risk Prevention, whose full official name is the State Foundation for Occupational Risk Prevention, FSP, is a non-profit foundation of the Spanish state public sector. Its existence is provided for in the fifth additional provision of Law 31/1995 on Occupational Risk Prevention, which authorized the creation of such a foundation to manage resources allocated to prevention.
It was formally established on April 27, 1999, following the agreement adopted by the plenary session of the National Commission for Safety and Health at Work on November 25, 1998. The National Commission is the collegiate body, made up of the General State Administration, the autonomous communities and the most representative business and trade union organizations, to which the Foundation reports on its activity.
It is attached to the General State Administration through the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy. It is not an autonomous body nor a public law entity with administrative powers: it is a foundation, subject to the regulations governing foundations in the state public sector, whose board of trustees comprises representatives of the Administration and of the business and trade union organizations present on the National Commission.
In regulations and documentation predating the changes in the names of ministerial departments, the entity is listed as the Foundation for the Prevention of Occupational Risks, without the term “State.” It is the same institution under a previous name.
Purpose and scope of action
The Foundation’s purpose is to promote improved occupational safety and health conditions, with a particular focus on small and medium-sized enterprises, by supporting nationwide workplace risk prevention initiatives. It does not provide prevention services to specific companies, nor does it replace the prevention services that regulations require of each organization; its role is to finance and coordinate third-party initiatives that pursue this objective.
Its scope of action is the entire Spanish territory. The actions it finances must have a national reach or, failing that, extend beyond the scope of a single autonomous community, which distinguishes it from foundations and prevention institutes at the regional level that manage equivalent calls for proposals within their own territory.
Functions and main lines of work
The Foundation’s activity is mainly structured around the management of public calls for aid.
- Annual calls for prevention actions. It finances, through competitive bidding, projects from business organizations, trade unions and other non-profit entities aimed at improving the prevention of occupational risks, particularly in SMEs.
- Management and financial control of aid. Processes advances and settlements of financed actions and submits the annual accounting justification of its activity to the General State Administration Comptroller’s Office.
- Dissemination of prevention materials. Publishes and distributes guides, documents and other products derived from the funded actions, available to companies and professionals in the sector.
- Accountability to the National Commission. It periodically reports to the plenary of the National Commission for Occupational Safety and Health on the implementation of the calls for proposals and the results of the funded actions.
Funding framework
The funding of the Foundation by the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy has been regulated, since July 2023, by Order TES/774/2023, which replaced the previous regulations of 2006. This order establishes that the Ministry transfers to the Foundation a maximum amount equivalent to the budget credit approved each year in the General State Budgets, in two payments: an initial disbursement of up to 75 percent in the first half of the year and the remainder in the second half.
The order also regulates the advances that the Foundation itself can grant to the beneficiary entities of its calls for proposals, up to 75 percent of the amount of each action, and requires the Foundation to keep its tax obligations up to date and to present the annual accounting justification of its activity before June 30 of the following year.
Contribution to safety and health at work
The Foundation’s contribution is primarily financial and promotional: it makes public resources available to business organizations, trade unions, and other entities so they can develop prevention initiatives that, due to their cost or scope, many SMEs could not undertake on their own. This is distinct from the role of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (INSST), which is the leading technical and scientific body in the field of prevention, develops technical criteria, and does not manage calls for proposals of this kind. Both institutions fall under the same ministerial purview but fulfill different functions and should not be confused.
By focusing on small and medium-sized enterprises, the Foundation emphasizes the business segment that, according to the National Commission’s own diagnoses, has the greatest difficulties in acquiring its own technical and economic resources for prevention.
Relationship with the ORP International Foundation
The State Foundation for Occupational Risk Prevention shares its foundational nature with the ORP International Foundation, although its purpose differs: to manage public calls for preventive actions aimed primarily at small and medium-sized Spanish companies. Its presence on the ORP Foundation’s institutional advisory committee is a consultative relationship between two foundations in the field of prevention, without any joint program between them beyond this membership.
Practical application
For a business, trade union, or professional organization, the Foundation is the usual channel for accessing public funding for nationwide prevention projects aimed at SMEs, by submitting applications to its annual calls for proposals. For a specific SME, the benefit is usually indirect: it materializes through the guides, tools, and training activities resulting from the funded actions, which the beneficiary entities then make available to the business community.
