This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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New appointment to Board of Scottish Water
25/08/2003
Pat Kelly has been appointed as the additional member of
the Board of Scottish Water with special knowledge of the
interests of the employees. Mr Kelly's appointment will run
from 1 September 2003 to 31 March 2006. The post is part
time, with remuneration of £18,305 per year based on a time
commitment of around 4 days per month.
Scottish Water was established by the Water Industry
(Scotland) Act 2002 on 1 April 2002 to take over
responsibility for public water and sewerage services from
the three former regional water authorities, North, East
and West of Scotland Water. Scottish Water is a public
sector corporation delivering water and sewerage services
to over 5 million customers in Scotland. It is the 4
th largest water services provider in the UK and
the 12
th largest company in Scotland in terms of
turnover. Scottish Water is accountable to the Scottish
Parliament through Scottish Ministers.
Welcoming the announcement, Environment Minister Ross
Finnie said:
"I am delighted that Mr Kelly will bring his particular
skills and experience to the Board of Scottish Water. When
we established Scottish Water last year with the Water
Industry (Scotland) Act 2002, there was cross party support
for the provision that one of the board members of Scottish
Water should have special knowledge of the interests of the
employees of Scottish Water.
"Pat Kelly has wide experience of employee issues
through his extensive trade union background, including 14
years as Senior National Officer of the Public and
Commercial Services Union and a similar period with the
STUC General Council, where he served in the most senior
positions of President, Treasurer and Chair of the main
committees. I am sure the employees of Scottish Water can
look to Mr Kelly to represent their interests well on the
Board.
"Scottish Water has a major challenge ahead in
delivering a massive investment programme of £1.8bn towards
modernising the infrastructure to give improved drinking
water quality, environmental compliance and customer
services at least cost to customers. The workforce will
play the major part in delivering an efficient and
effective public sector water industry of which we can all
be proud."
Mr Kelly is currently a member of the board of NHS24 and
also a member of the Civil Service Appeal Board. He has a
wide experience of employee issues through his extensive
trade union background, including 14 years as Senior
National Officer of the Public and Commercial Services
Union and a similar period with the STUC General Council,
where he served in the most senior positions of President,
Treasurer and chairman of the main committees. He was also
a non-executive director of Scottish Enterprise, Edinburgh
and Lothian. His appointment with NHS24 is another
ministerial appointment for which he receives £7000 per
year. Mr Kelly has declared political activity on behalf of
the Labour Party within the last 5 years
Scottish Water was established on 1 April 2002 by the
Water Industry (Scotland) Act. In March 2002 Ministers
appointed seven of the eight non-executive board members
(including the Chair) of Scottish Water under Schedule 3,
paragraph 2(3) of the Act. In accordance with paragraph
2(4), one of the non-executive members must be a person
appearing to Ministers to have a "special knowledge of the
interests of the employees of Scottish Water". Under
paragraph 2(5), Ministers consulted the STUC about the
particular knowledge and attributes such a member should
have before proceeding with the appointment exercise.
The appointment exercise followed the Code of Practice
set out by the UK Office of the Commissioner for Public
Appointments. Candidates were assessed against a broad
range of criteria including an understanding of the issues
facing employees, industrial relations, employment
legislation and human resources.
Mr Kelly will join the Chair and 6 other non-executive
members already appointed to the Board - as listed
below:
Professor Alan Alexander, Chair, was appointed from 11
March 2002 to 31 March 2005.
Mr Graeme Crombie, Mr Ian McMillan and Mrs Rita Theil
were appointed from
11 March 2002 to 31 March 2006.
Mr William Cameron, Mr David Gray and Professor Paul
Jowitt were appointed from 11 March 2002 until 31 March
2005.
All members are eligible to be considered for
re-appointment at the end of their first term of
appointment subject to satisfactory performance
appraisal.