Give the guy a break

Although Nigel Griffiths certainly has his work cut out, we ought to recognise that he has done a pretty fair job so far on quickly informing himself on the main issues facing construction.

This was clearly demonstrated at the recent SEC Group launch of the BISRA partnering Toolkit, which proved him to be well-informed on key concerns such as partnerships, retentions and training. The view of the building services sector representatives attending the launch, with colleagues from the rest of the industry, was that Mr Griffiths had certainly done his homework.

I am certainly not "purring" yet, but Griffiths ought to be given a chance to deliver. The seriousness of the issues touched on in your article – particularly the number of deaths in the industry – is too great to be trivialised.

The industry might, I think, be best served if we were all to give Nigel Griffiths the support he deserves in taking over his new and difficult brief. Then we'd really have the right to hold him and his government colleagues to account and to criticise the results of their efforts constructively.