New PMCC Chair for England
26 January 2015
The Premiam Monitoring Coordination Cell (PMCC) is part of the spill response process put in place under the Premiam initiative. The PMCC can be convened during a marine spill scenario to initiate, coordinate and oversee any marine environmental monitoring and impact assessment activities. A PMCC is chaired by a marine monitoring expert and there is a named PMCC chair for incidents in each UK country. Robin Law (Cefas), who has been the PMCC chair for England since the inception of the role in 2012, is stepping down from the role in February 2015 and will be succeeded by his Cefas colleague Dr Brett Lyons. Brett is a leading marine scientist with more than 20 years experience in planning and implementing monitoring programmes for assessing the impact of chemical contaminants in the marine environment and chairs of the UK's Clean Safe Seas Evidence Group (CSSEG). In recent years he has been instrumental in developing the over-arching marine chemical contaminant surveillance strategy for UK waters and have been involved in developing an integrated biological effects and chemical monitoring programme for both OSPAR and MSFD purposes. He will be an excellent addition to the Premiam initiative and will provide the necessary continuity of excellence in post spill monitoring coordination for incidents in English waters. In the meantime all involved in the Premiam initiative would like to thank Robin for his service and wish him best wishes for the future.