HM Specialist Inspector – Process Safety (CEMHD Band 3/SEO)

Diverse Perspectives and experiences are critical to our success, and we welcome applications from all people from all backgrounds with the experience and skills needed to perform this role. We look forward to receiving your application.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

At HSE, we work with one goal in mind – to help keep Britain’s workforce safe and healthy. Our work touches virtually every sector of Great Britain’s industry. Combining specialists from numerous fields, we strive to keep people and their working environments safe.

We don’t just inspect workplaces and implement the law, we campaign for better H&S practice, we craft and review guidance and regulations, we provide specialist products and services both here and overseas, and we produce crucial research and statistics – all towards our goal of helping Great Britain work well.

Chemicals, Explosives and Microbiological Hazards Division (CEMHD) is responsible for the GB-wide regulation of onshore major hazard premises and installations as well as the chemicals manufacturing sector as a whole. This involves regulatory interventions in workplaces, engaging with key industry stakeholders and providing assurance to Government and the public that major accident risks are being properly managed.

The sectors we regulate in CEMHD are essential to the country’s economy and social infrastructure, but they often involve hazardous substances and processes with potential for catastrophic accidents. The purpose of CEMHD is to make sure that the businesses that present a risk of such catastrophic events are managing those risks properly.

As a Specialist Inspector of Process Safety, you will be an essential part of the work that CEMHD do. You will use your technical knowledge and expertise to regulate major hazard industries and to influence whole sectors to improve health and safety standards, thereby helping to prevent catastrophic accidents.

Our Specialist Inspectors of Process Safety help to ensure employers across Great Britain – a whole range of essential industries – work safely. In this role, you can utilise your considerable technical knowledge and practical experience to influence not only individual employers but whole industry sectors.

A career with HSE gives you a rare opportunity to visit and interact with different and diverse employers and work activities. One day you could be inspecting in a large petrochemical complex and the next investigating an accident at a wood working business.

You’ll work alongside other technical specialists to ensure the work activities of those we regulate are operating within the legislative framework by inspecting, investigating, and assessing organisations.

Your work with HSE will make the most of your experience – whether that’s inspecting a chemical processing plant, assessing a company’s safety report or providing technical assistance to colleagues undertaking complex investigations into serious incidents.

As you can see, this role will broaden your knowledge and your professional credibility like no other role can.

The physical ability to walk around an industrial process plant is essential for this role.

If you are interested in what the HM Specialist Inspector (Process Safety) role is like, have a look at this short video of one of our Inspectors Ceri Petrie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upSlff3v2io

A remote question and answer session will be held on Thursday 7th September at 10am, please email if you would like to attend and you will be sent a link.

At HSE, we are proud to be able to offer our people the opportunity to work in a hybrid way which combines working from home and the office. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your allocated office will be your contractual place of work. There will be a requirement to travel to the office for various activities e.g., collaborative working, supporting and training colleagues. If hybrid working is suitable for you and your role, the arrangements will be determined primarily by business need, but personal circumstances and other relevant circumstances will also be taken into account. Therefore, we would encourage candidates to consider if the commute from home to the office is a feasible distance to travel before making an application. Please note that if you are successful, hybrid working will be discussed prior to taking up the post.

Part time working hours are available for this role. We can accept part time applicants who can commit to working a minimum of 30 hours (4 days) per week.

This role is mostly remote working with travel 1-2 times a month for inspections across the UK. Attendance in an office is normally once a week. The part-time working patterns that can be supported are; 4 days a week, 9-day fortnights and term time working, although some flexibility is needed during the first 2 years due to training, with advanced notice.

Key responsibilities:

Inspect a variety of workplaces, either on your own or with a specialist team, to make sure that risks are being actively managed and reduced, driving improvements, and gaining commitment to comply with the law.

Forensic investigation of process safety related incidents to identify the root cause and where necessary, direct the technical aspect of the investigation, calling in other specialist support and supporting legal action to prevent a recurrence.

Write technical reports to explain your specialist opinion to guide legal decisions.

Appear as specialist witness at tribunals, inquests, and prosecutions.

Given that HSE regulates sites across the whole of GB you will be expected to spend short periods working away from home which will include overnight stays. This will typically be 1-2 nights a month, but this may be higher in the first 2 years due to training.

Essential Job-Related Expertise:

Have a breadth of practical Process Safety experience of chemical and/or onshore downstream oil industry processing. Including the application of industrial chemistry/chemical engineering skills and experience to controlling risks in the chemical industry.

A practical understanding of the design and operation of chemical process plant, including experience of applying the principles of chemistry and chemical engineering to industrial scale processes.

Be able to communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing, with people at all levels of an organisation, to persuade and influence others. This should include communicating with both technical and non-technical people. You should also be able to communicate difficult messages that may not be popular, effectively but professionally.  

Be able to make effective decisions and be held accountable for these.  

Desirable Job-Related Expertise:

Experience of hazard identification and risk assessment techniques, for examples HAZOPs, in the safe design and operation of a safe plant.

Experience of applying the principles of safety as applied to the manufacture, storage and handling of hazardous chemicals.

Be able to work as a multi-disciplinary team and build relationships with both colleagues and those that we regulate to positively influence long-term compliance with the law.

Be able to robustly challenge people at all levels of an organisation.

Be organised and self-motivated, to be able to plan and deliver your work, to a deadline, with a high level of autonomy.  

Key personal attributes:

Have a curious mind about how processes across many different industries work, and a genuine interest in regulating to protect people where they live and work.

We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Applying your industrial chemistry / chemical engineering skills, knowledge and experience to identify risks and how they could be practically controlled, applying a hierarchical approach to a wide range of industries that we regulate through scenario bas

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• Competitive rates of pay
• Access to the highly competitive Civil Service Pension Scheme to which HSE contribute 27.9%, far more than in the private sector
• Family friendly policies and working hours to help balance your home life and career
• Carer friendly policies to help create a supportive working culture
• 25 days annual holiday increasing to 30 days after 5 years’ service, plus bank holidays and 1-day Civil Service privilege leave
• Parental leave benefits

Job contact :

• Name : Rhiannon Thomas
• Email : Process.Safety.Recruitment@hse.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : hr.resourcing-team@hse.gov.uk