The HSE has been busy promoting and shuffling some of its senior staff around, with three major new appointments announced this week, but extra resources are still unlikely to be forthcoming.
Current chief inspector of construction, Stephen Williams (pictured), has been appointed to the newly-created post of director of field operations for London and Olympics. He is to lead the health and safety regulation of the 2012 games, including the construction phase, while heading up the London Field Operations Division of the Executive.
Williams joined the HSE in 1977 and has been involved in many of the UK’s best-known construction projects, including the Channel Tunnel and Dartford Bridge. He has also held senior posts in the railways inspection and technical divisions, and in policy.
He will stay in his current post until it is filled, with the candidate also likely to be internal, according to a HSE spokesperson, who also explained the rationale behind the creation of the new post. She said: “Because of the Olympics the workload is obviously going to increase. Stephen Williams is the best person to handle that, and this new position frees up his time to give it all it requires at the leadership level.”
Asked whether any more inspectors would be provided to address the increased workload, the spokesperson said the Executive was “not looking to ask for more resources”.
Meanwhile, the regulator’s new deputy chief executive is Kevin Myers, former chief inspector of construction for the HSE and, latterly, director of its Hazardous Installations Directorate.
The appointment follows an open competition overseen by the Civil Service Commission. The current deputy chief executive, Sandra Caldwell, is retiring but will continue working with the HSE until February next year, primarily on the ongoing public inquiry into the ICL Plastics factory explosion and the Executive’s role as regulator.
Myers will take up his role on 13 October and brings, according to chief executive, Geoffrey Podger, “a wealth of experience and an understanding of health and safety issues from a regional, national and European perspective” to the role. Myers joined the HSE in 1976 as a factory inspector, and spent a period in the 1990s on secondment to the European Commission in Brussels.
Speaking after his appointment, he said: “I see the HSE in a role which works not only in partnership with those that share our mission but that also holds to account those who do not control the risks they create.”
Finally, the HSE has named its new chief medical officer and head of epidemiology as Dr John Osman, following an open competition for the role. Dr Osman has been with the Executive since 1986 and is a longstanding member of the Society of Occupational Medicine, and an honorary fellow of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine. He takes up his post on 1 October.
