Members of the CIRAS committee

Stephen joined the committee as an independent representative in 2021.

Stephen is the chief executive of the Permanent Way Institution (PWI), a professional engineering institution for railway infrastructure engineers, committed to harnessing railway systems engineering knowledge from industry and academia and spreading that understanding through its membership.   

Prior to taking up his position at the PWI, Stephen was head of Permanent Way Engineering for Transport for London. 

Stephen’s whole career has been on the railway: he joined British Rail from school in 1974, initially specialising in track design, maintenance and renewal. Notably, he led the testing and commissioning of high output track renewal equipment on the British network; strengthened safety, engineering and assurance functions at First Engineering (later Babcock Rail) in response to the Hatfield train accident in 2000; and directed the privatisation of British Rail’s infrastructure engineering activities. 

Gareth joined the committee as a supply chain representative in 2019. 

Gareth has worked in rail since 1995, joining Morson Group in 2006. He has been Morson Group director since 2017, in rail and construction, following 20 years’ experience in operational health and safety and frontline rail contract operational management. 

Interested in developing the best reporting systems that encourage most use, Gareth joined the committee to help promote CIRAS’ services to the rail sector and to help shape CIRAS’ operational activity.  

Gareth is also a board director of the Rail Industry Contractors Association (RICA), a committee member of the Railway Industry Supplier Qualification Scheme (RISQS), chairperson of the RISQS Buyers’ Committee, member of the Track Safety Alliance (TSA) committee, member of the infrastructure safety leadership group (ISLG) fatigue sub-group committee, and Supply Chain Sustainability School partner. 

Jimmy joined the committee as a freight industry representative in 2022. 

Jimmy has worked in the rail industry for over 30 years, mostly in operations and some time in HSE. Prior to joining Freightliner as head of Operational Safety in June 2022, he led the accident investigation team for the North West & Central region within Network Rail.  

He says: ‘CIRAS is a valuable resource to the rail industry. My time in accident investigation cemented my belief that we need to have multiple ways of reporting issues in the workplace. Relying solely on internal processes doesn’t always give frontline staff the confidence to report safety matters.’ 

Kevin joined the rail industry as a train operating company representative in 2022. 

Kevin manages a team responsible for reviewing and conducting risk assessments, investigating accidents, writing and updating safety management procedures, chairing Great Western Railway’s (GWR) safety committees and submitting reports to GWR’s safety improvement groups. 

Rob joined the committee as a union representative in 2019. 

Rob has been working in the trade union movement and representing workers for over 40 years, in various roles: as national education officer, national health and safety officer, and regional and national industrial officer.

He has represented Unite and predecessor unions on many national and international committees such as the the Trades Union Congress, the Construction Industry Advisory Committee, the Railway Industry Advisory Committee, ACTS, parliamentary committees, and specialist committees for the European Commission. 

He says: ‘CIRAS remains an essential element for workers to express health and safety concerns, and impartially investigate worrying issues workers may have. They pick up early warning signals and emerging issues and are able to listen to the concerns and suggestions that workers across transport and infrastructure are not raising openly.

Jonathan joined the committee as a union representative in 2021. 

Jonathan Havard has been health and safety officer for the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) since 2020. 

Prior to this, he was a National Secretary at the maritime union Nautilus International, where he worked for almost 20 years. 

Jonathan is also a non-legal member of the Employment Tribunal Service in England and Wales. 

He says: ‘I think it’s important to be part of CIRAS as every opportunity should be afforded to workers to report failings or concerns, and there will be times when a confidential service is more appropriate than usual channels such as trade unions or HR – an example is the reporting of fatigue and tiredness.’ 

Dean joined the committee as a Network Rail representative in 2022. 

Dean is a risk and governance professional who has worked specifically in ethics and confidential reporting roles for more than five years. He has experience in communicating, implementing and managing processes and systems to support colleagues in speaking out.

He says: ‘CIRAS provides the wider industry with an important, independent, confidential reporting channel which can be used to raise and resolve safety concerns. Being a committee member provides an excellent opportunity to discuss the reporting culture across our industry and review trends and emerging safety concerns.’

Stuart joined the committee as the TfL representative in 2021.

Stuart is head of Insights and Direction in Transport for London’s (TfL) Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) directorate. His responsibilities include updating TfL’s SHE management system and leading a continuous improvement of TfL’s SHE culture. 

Simon joined the committee as the TfW and TfW Rail representative in 2023. 

Simon has been in the rail industry for 28 years, starting out as a conductor and moving through conductor management before going into operational and occupational safety, and most recently safety assurance. 

He says: 'Mature companies see confidential reporting as a sign that they are succeeding – by empowering reporters to have a voice when they might otherwise be uncomfortable putting their hand up. They see reports as an opportunity to address a safety concern, not someone’s failure. After all, without the report, we may never know about a latent risk until it is too late.'

Liz joined the committee as a Network Rail representative in 2020. 

Mark joined the committee as a light rail industry representative in 2020. 

Stephen joined the committee as a bus industry representative in 2022. 

Russell joined the committee as a deputy supply chain representative in 2022. 

Russell has worked in the rail industry for over 25 years, starting as a track person and progressing through different skill sets – including as lookout, controller of site safety, protection controller, machine controller and crane controller.  

He started working in safety roles in 2012 and gained Chartership in 2021. Before joining 1stinRail in 2021 as the head of HSQE, he was HSQE manager at RSS Infrastructure for 2.5 years. Prior to that, he was at McGinley Support Services, leaving as HSQE manager. 

Russell has witnessed first-hand that concerns with health, safety and wellbeing are not always addressed in a way that reassures the reporter. For him, CIRAS is a voice that can advocate for people who often feel forgotten and sometimes silenced. 

Griff joined the committee as a deputy TfL representative in 2023. 

Griff has worked in the health, safety and human sustainability industry for 20 years, mainly in the civil construction and transport sectors. He is leading on the creation and implementation of TfL’s SHE culture improvement programme.

He has an interest in the strategic integration and alignment of health and safety systems and practices into overall organisational objectives, goals and ways of working.