GR
Graham Russell
Office for Product Safety and Standards
Chief Executive
Description
Graham Russell is Chief Executive of the UK Office for Product Safety and Standards, part of the Department for Business and Trade.
The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) was created in January 2018 and regulates a wide range of products, including construction products, with a focus on their safety and integrity, from design to disposal. OPSS is the Government lead for standards and accreditation and market surveillance coordination as well as leading on good regulatory delivery including the Regulators’ Code and operating Primary Authority which 100,000 businesses are participating in, giving them access to assured advice.
Graham’s career and experience has been as a regulator, first in local government where he led a number of regulatory services and created new regulatory functions responsible for animal health and welfare and claims management. After working with government teams supporting UK regulatory reform reviews, Graham was appointed the first chief executive of the Local Better Regulation Office (LBRO) and established LBRO as a pioneer in the concept of regulatory delivery. Graham led a range of initiatives to test new approaches to the effective delivery of regulation at a local level. Graham continued to lead the organisation through expansion of remit as the Better Regulation Delivery Office in 2012, Regulatory Delivery in 2016 before the creation of the Office for Product Safety and Standards in 2018. In January 2021, the government announced that the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) would take on responsibility for the national regulation of construction products. This was in line with a recommendation made in the Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety led by Dame Judith Hackitt following the Grenfell Tower fire.
Loading