The Railway Heritage Committee Appointment as Chairman

Richard Faulkner, Lord Faulkner of Worcester, has been appointed Chairman of the Railway Heritage Committee in succession to former Chief Executive of Lloyd's, Ian Hay Davison CBE − who served for five years from October 1999. The appointment, by the SRA, with the approval of the Secretary of State Alistair Darling, takes effect from 3 December 2004.

Lord Faulkner has been a member of the RHC since May 2002, serving on the Archives and Scottish committees. He recently chaired a strategy working group for the RHC, which considered options for the Committee's future, following publication of the Government's White Paper on The Future of Rail.

In Parliament he is Treasurer of the All-Party Railways Group, and was formerly departmental liaison peer attached to the Department for Transport. He worked as an adviser to the British Railways Board for over 20 years before entering the House of Lords in 1999. He has just completed a three-year term as President of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents.

Lord Faulkner commented today:

"It is a great honour to be asked to chair the Railway Heritage Committee. Ian Hay Davison has been an outstanding Chairman, and will be a very hard act to follow. The RHC has a vital role to play in safeguarding the nation's railway heritage. We were established by statute to secure the preservation of evidence which is significant to the railways' history, and we still have much to do."

22 October 2004

(The Railway Heritage Committee is a statutory body established by the Railway Heritage Act 1996. Its function is to designate railway artefacts and archives for retention for posterity. The Chairman is appointed by the Chairman of the Strategic Rail Authority with the approval of the Secretary of State for Transport. The Secretary of State gave his approval on the 28 September 2004 to the appointment of Richard Faulkner as the next Chairman of the Railway Heritage Committee.)