24.09.2013

New CEO required for HSE

The UK’s Health & Safety Executive is looking for a new chief executive following the move of Geoffrey Podger to New Zealand this week where he is to be interim chief executive of WorkSafe New Zealand.
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Geoffrey Podger

Podger, a 39 year civil service veteran has been the HSE chief executive since 2005, prior to that, he was executive director of the European Food Safety Authority and chief executive of the UK Food Standards Agency. See new chief executive for HSE

Applications for the job close on October 11th with interviews scheduled for early November. The annual salary is £140 to £160,000 and it based in Bootle, Merseyside.

Click here to view the job and to apply

Vertikal Comment

Jobs such as this usually go to career civil servants, it would be refreshing to see the promotion of a senior principal inspector with real practical experience - and there are at least a couple that spring to mind – rather than the usual career academic/civil servant. Alternatively there are some first class health & safety directors in the private sector that might bring a breath of fresh air to the organisation.

Whoever gets the job, let’s hope that it is someone who will stand up and be counted and change the organisation from one that is far too focussed on legal prosecutions, rather than truly making the workplace a safer place. Note the shambles over the investigation into the 135ft boom lift that overturned at the start of June – almost four months later we are all still wondering what the cause was. It is totally unthinkable that it is not now known, so one has to assume that the HSE is delving into how best to prosecute someone – rather than informing everyone of what happened.

Perhaps a senior manager from the Civil Aviation Authority ought to apply? It seems to be able to announce preliminary findings of its investigations within a week or two of an accident, involving a far more complex piece of equipment.

I am not holding my breath.