Perhaps a fresh eye from another industry will bring some benefits. That said, after reading SHP article below the cynic in me thinks she may have been brought in for more cost cutting and job shredding.

https://www.shponline.co.uk/feature/new-chief-executive-for-hse-has-been-announced/ 

I totally agree RayRapp.  

On a personal note and being an optomistic pragmatist, I had thought with the public disgust on hearing how the safety of building and construction in this country has been diluted since the mid 1970's and including the removal of the Clerk of Works post and the continued underfunding of the government funded HSE and the hundred plus inspectors who are no longer employed by the HSE, there needs to be a recconing at ministerial level, whether or not we leave the EU.  

We see health and safety laws as the bedrock for a safe workplace, so why can't the Government not understand that the laws governing our land need both tightening up and simplification, but more importantly properly audited (or inspected), this needs more money spent not less.  I fear that we are going to get another lamb, when the country needs a lion to champion health and safety.  This most recent appointment does not reassue me.  

This is an issue that I think, apart from anything else, puts a limit on career progression for health and safety professionals. I have worked for a safety organisation where there was no-one above my level qualified in health and safety, and I wasn't at a high level. I would have thought that someone in charge of the HSE should have qualifications and some experience in health and safety; I would have thought it goes with the territory. If we are to raise the profile of our profession, then getting professionals into senior positions is surely part of this. As it is, the recruitment processes used in such matters inflicts a ceiling on progression for all of us, and perhaps it is time this was challenged. The notion that someone from a different field can turn their hand to our field is optimistic to say the least. A fresh pair of eyes, yes, but when those eyes don't know what they're looking at, it's not going to end well.

Unfortunately the job title Manager, Director or having a few direct reports does not necessarily translate to the necessary business accumen to lead an entire organisation.

Originally Posted by: biker1

The notion that someone from a different field can turn their hand to our field is optimistic to say the least. A fresh pair of eyes, yes, but when those eyes don't know what they're looking at, it's not going to end well.

That works both ways, I have seen/intervened with Cmiosh H&S professional on the railway with zero comprehension of an imminent life threatening hazard, As someone who has "turned their hand" to H&S I will never have his credentials, but as a mere H&S Advisor can keep him safe on the railway, unlike I suspect the vast majority of H&S professionals. There is more to safety than knowing all the rules and regulations.

The HSE is a bureaucracy and like most bureaucracies it develops a life of its own. It is part of a larger bureaucracy the Civil Service which has its own agenda, which might not exactly align with what the HSE is about.

The people who run these organisations are usually called executives not managers and they no longer deal with people, as such, but departments and overarching policies and the little stuff ( like RAMS) are not really relevant to them unless they impact on the high level stuff they have been  told to deal with.  Looking at her background I would suggest the RayRapp is right. The Courts and Tribunal Service has been trying to be “cost neutral” for the past twenty years or so, which essentially means it does not cost the Treasury anything to run as it recovers its own costs through fines and charges.  I think them would like to HSE to be like that as well. Cost recovery will be the aim of the game. Is suspect that they will charge you just looking at the HSE website in the future.

I remember once being told by an incoming Director of Safety with no safety qualifications that to manage a safety organisation or a team of safety professionals, one doesn't necessarily need to know anything about safety as it is purely a people management role - the safety team are the ones with the knowledge! 

However when a month later I refused to allow some demolition works in an office to being because the CDM requirements hadn't been fulfilled, I got a rollocking for it (despite another colleague agreeing with me)! Had he have understood safety a little more then he may have understood my judgement a little more.  Needless to say I moved on fairly quickly after that!