It has never been a more exciting time to join the Defra group, which is responsible for the environment, the countryside and the rural economy. Defra’s diverse teams deal with a vast range of issues that profoundly affect people’s day to day life from the food we eat, to the air we breathe and the water we drink.?
The objective for the Defra Environmental Quality Directorate is to improve and protect health and the environment by improving air quality, managing noise, promoting resource efficiency, and managing risks from chemicals, to support our objective to be the first generation to leave the environment in a better state than we inherited it.
At the end of the transition period, the UK will be making independent policy on chemicals, pesticides and hazardous waste. To enable this, each of the post-holders will support this work in one of two areas:
Under the new, independent chemicals regulation regime, UK REACH, the Secretary of State will make regulatory decisions. The post-holder’s role will be to use their experience and understanding of chemicals, pesticides and hazardous waste, assessing the risks they could pose to human health and the environment to ensure that the Secretary of State makes these decisions based on the very best advice.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) will be the UK regulator for Pesticides. There is scope for UK regulation to make independent decisions from those of the EU over time, and the post-holder for pesticides will be responsible for ensuring that Defra policy makers and ministers are fully informed about the risks and benefits of decisions they make on pesticides.
We are looking for specialists with demonstrable experience producing and/or understanding and using chemicals risk assessments and communicating this information to a non-specialist audience in order to support science-based decision-making. Specific experience in managing the risks of chemicals would be valuable for the role supporting chemicals regulation policy and science related to pesticide risks or efficacy would be valuable for the role supporting policy on PPPs.
The post-holders will be integrated within chemicals and pesticides policy hubs (as appropriate), but we will ensure that they have strong support from the scientist profession within the Division and Defra more widely, through peer learning, mentoring and coaching as well as access to a wide range of material and professional advice to support them in their roles.
Apply before 11:55 pm on Monday 19th October 2020
Reference: 73699
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