Event / Webinar Speakers
Vikki Watt, Partner at BTO Solicitors LLP, Head of Health & Safety/Regulatory Defence. ‘The legal perspective on why employers should have systems in place to ensure and enforce road safety, illustrated by real life examples’
Vikki Watt has specialised in the defence of health and safety prosecutions for almost 20 years. A leading light in her industry, she is ranked Band 1 by Chambers Legal Directory for Health and Safety Defence and has been recommended and highly ranked in independent legal directories for the past 15 years. A qualified Solicitor Advocate, Vikki leads BTO’s Top Tier Health & Safety team Team who were voted Crime Firm of the Year last year by Legal 500. She regularly advises and provides training for clients from all sectors on compliance issues, but also represents them in the aftermath of an incident providing immediate advice, assistance and representation at time of crisis. This can extend to providing strategic advice in handling large-scale Investigations as well as representing clients in Court for prosecutions and during Fatal Accident Inquiries.
Dr James Broun, Research Manager, RoSPA, ‘Work related fatalities on Scotland’s Roads; the data behind the Police Scotland and Transport Scotland In Depth Fatalities Research report 2015-2020.’
James joined RoSPA in 2024, having previously been a policy manager at Make UK. He has experience in policy, research, campaigns and public affairs, with a prior focus on housing, manufacturing and the economy. At RoSPA, James is responsible for research into accidental injuries, developing policy solutions, supporting public affairs work, and running policy campaigns.
Katy MacMillan, Director, Research Scotland, ‘Managing driving and riding for work within a local authority context; what does good look like? Where does this sit within procurement, supply chain management and the interface with vulnerable road users?
Katy MacMillan is Director of Research Scotland. She has more than 20 years’ experience of working in social research in Scotland. She regularly leads national and local evaluations, research projects and reviews. Katy specialises in qualitative and mixed method research, understanding attitudes, behaviours and choices. She leads research in the fields of equality, justice, safety, community and health. Over 20 years, Katy has undertaken a wide range of work in the road safety field, including evaluating road safety education programmes for young people and researching risk taking behaviours.
Dr Karen McDonnell, Head of Global Relations, RoSPA ‘A Socio-ecological Model of Drowsy Driving in the UK: Are we there yet?
Focussing on the working age population and key issues including fatigue and driving risk. Karen is responsible for the delivery of the work of the Scottish Occupational Road Safety Alliance, a long term Transport Scotland funded initiative delivered by RoSPA, that not only contributes to Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2030, but also RoSPA’s strategic objectives relating to the management of occupational road risk to a network of organisations based in Scotland and the wider world. Over the next 10 years the project will be a critical component for Scotland achieving the best road safety performance in the world, and in doing so will provide insight and evidence with global relevance’.
Kate Cairns, Speaker Trainer Advisor
Kate is a multi-award-winning agent of change, Chartered Civil Engineer, Chartered Environmentalist, and Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE). Following a personal tragedy Kate has worked for over a decade to inspire and collaborate with an enormous range of (sometimes reluctant) stakeholders resulting in change to legislation, policy and standards at local, national and European level to make our streets safer for active travelers. She has led the instigation and evolution of a ‘world-first’ industry standard (CLOCS), to reduce the risk of construction vehicles, the biggest deterrent to cyclists, and is now a CLOCS Ambassador and Trainer. Kate has served as a County Councillor in Northumberland, embedding CLOCS into the Council procurement policy and sitting on the first ever Cycling and Walking Committee to produce their strategy Gearing Up. She has worked in academia as a Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor at Durham University (Embedding Sustainability and Inclusion into Engineering); in the third sector serving as trustee of RoadPeace, the national charity for road crash victims; and she chairs the Institution of Civil Engineers Fairness Inclusion & Respect Committee. Kate helps her clients across the supply chain bring about change in safety and sustainability, through speaking, training and peer review. Kate has featured on national TV, radio, broadsheets, and in trade press and podcasts.
Stacey Clemes, Professor of Active Living and Public Health, Loughborough University, ‘SHIFTing gears to improve driver health; how can we support professional drivers to sit less and drive more?
Stacy Clemes, Professor of Active Living and Public Health, Loughborough University. Her research focuses on the development, implementation and evaluation of and evaluation of pragmatic behaviour change programmes designed to encourage people to adopt healthy lifestyle behaviours. For over a decade, she has led a large programme of research, focusing on hard-to-reach and at-risk occupational groups – particularly commercial drivers.
This research led to the development of the Structured Health Intervention For Truckers (SHIFT) – a multicomponent programme for HGV drivers designed to promote physical activity and positive lifestyle changes. Following positive findings from an evaluation of the SHIFT programme, Stacey and her team have worked with logistics operator partners to translate the SHIFT programme into a driver Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) module, now adopted by major logistics operators. Stacy is passionate about promoting health and wellbeing, and hopes the SHIFT programme, and other initiatives they are working on, will have a long-term positive impact on commercial drivers' health and road safety.