Sir Bill Callaghan

Sir Bill Callaghan was appointed a member of the Legal Services Commission from 28 July 2008 and Chair from 1 September 2008. He also chairs the Finance Committee. Sir Bill has a very strong track record of operating in a range of senior roles. He is also a serving magistrate.

Much of Sir Bill’s earlier career was focused in the Trades Union Congress (TUC) where he was the Chief Economist and Head of the Economic and Social Affairs Department. He developed the TUC’s policy on partnership at work. He served on the Low Pay Commission from 1997 to 2000 and played a key role in the introduction of the National Minimum Wage in April 1999. Bill has since led a review into the regulation of animal pathogens for Defra and was an independent member of the Joint Negotiating Committee for Higher Education Staff Review into HE Finance and Pay Data. He chairs the Board of Trustees of the British Occupational Health Research Foundation.

Sir Bill has a great deal of experience of operating within a sensitive political environment in an organisation that is going through considerable change. Educated at St John’s College, Oxford, he received a knighthood in the 2007 Queen’s Birthday Honours List in recognition of his outstanding contribution to health and safety management at work.

Sir Bill was Chair of the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) from October 1999 to September 2007. Here, he drove forward the HSC’s ‘Revitalising Health and Safety’ strategy, which set targets and priorities for improving health and safety performance.

He also strove to put health and well-being more firmly on the occupational health and safety agenda. In addition, Sir Bill spearheaded the HSE’s sensible risk campaign, which set out to debunk myths and show that health and safety is about protecting people from real harm rather than the trivial.

Became Chair of NEBOSH (The National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health) from March 2011 onwards.

Delivered the Allan St. John Holt lecture in 2010.