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The HSE Board has had a new interim chairperson by the name of George Brechin appointed this week, as Dame Judith Hackitt moved after 8.5 years as chairperson, to her new role as chair of EEF, the industry body for engineering and manufacturing employers, on 4 April. The HSE website gives the following details about their new interim Chairperson: George Brechin retired on 31 March 2012 after 10 years as Chief Executive of NHS Fife. Between January 2014 and March 2015 he was Interim Chief Executive of the State Hospitals Board for Scotland. That said, there will be those too who wish the new Chairperson well as he settles into an organisation that has more detractors than it has friends and certainly the Trade Union movement will wish to work with him and hope to be able to influence the direction he takes the HSE in. Resisting the governments continued onslaught into destroying as much of the UK's health and safety at work protection legislation they can, will be the key measurement of George Brechin's success. Meanwhile, Dame Judith's parting commitment in her final blog as Chairperson of the HSE: "I will be continuing to #HelpGBWorkWell as I move on to pastures new. My thanks and best wishes go to you all – keep up the good work!"
The recently announced cuts in the HSE budget of some £100 million over the next ten years has been met with public silence from the HSE board. The CWU's North West BT Union's Health and Safety Co-ordinators Committee has always taken the view that engaging the HSE in dialogue and involving itself in consultations is the best way to try and exert some influence on the HSE. Derek Maylor, Chairperson of the Co-ord wished the new interim Chairperson of the HSE well, commenting: "The HSE has been going through major changes under this Tory Government under the auspices of the previous Chair, Dame Judith Hackitt and whilst we have not always been in agreement with the stance taken, we must continue to engage with the HSE and the new interim Chair, George Brechin and wish him well as head of a crucial organisation which has existed since 1974. We will continues to put our case strongly to the HSE and the new Chair for the protection of worker's health, safety and welfare and call for resistance to this Tory government's attack upon the HSE and workplace health and safety and for the strongest prosecution of those employers who cause injuries and deaths to their workforce." It remains to be seen how the new Chairperson of the HSE, George Brechin OBE will do in resisting further weakening of the HSE and whether or not he will work closely with the Trade Union movement and utilise the expertise of their workplace safety reps. Source: HSE / Unionsafety |
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A graduate in electrical engineering and electronics from the University of Glasgow, he joined the Department of Health in London in 1972. He moved to the NHS in Scotland in 1988, holding three NHS Trust Chief Executive posts before his appointment to NHS Fife. 
Many have accused Dame Judith and the HSE Board of presiding over its conversion at the behest of the Tory government into a commercial organisation, incapable of gathering accurate statistics on workplace injuries and deaths, and doing little to promote health and safety at work and severely sanction those employers who couldn't care less about the health, safety and welfare of their staff.