Bill Callaghan

Sir William (Bill) Henry Callaghan (born 19 May 1948), is currently Chair of the Legal Services Commission, the organisation responsible for administering legal aid.

Sir Bill Callaghan went to Orange Hill Grammar School and was educated at St John's College, Oxford where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics and the University of Kent at Canterbury where he gained an MA in Economics.

Callaghan's early career was in the Trades Union Congress (TUC). He joined the Economic Department as a junior researcher in 1971, eventually becoming the Chief Economist and Head of the Economic and Social Affairs Department in 1979. He worked on a wide range of topics, from incomes policies in the 1970s to developing the TUC's policy on partnership at work in the 1990s.

Callaghan 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. From 1 October 1999 – 30 September 2007 he was Chair of the Health and Safety Commission. The Ladbroke Grove rail crash occurred on the second day of Sir Bill's term of office. He helped establish the public inquiry into the crash by Lord Cullen and championed subsequent improvements in rail safety.

He was instrumental in driving forward the 'Revitalising Health and Safety' initiative, which included director leadership of health and safety, workforce involvement and performance improvement targets. He strengthened the HSE's partnership with local authorities and reinvigorated their occupational health agenda, integrating this with the Government's plans to improve health, work and well being. Callaghan defended the role of the HSE in a 2006 article in The Guardian, and spearheaded HSE's sensible risk campaign.

He has been involved in a number of aspects of economic and social research, serving on the ESRC's Research Priorities Advisory Committee. Callaghan was a member of the advisory board on the ESRC's influential Future of Work programme (2001–2004).

He has been Chair of the Policy Advisory Committee Centre for Risk and Regulation at LSE since 2007.

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