Mary Pitcaithly is Chief Executive of Falkirk Council, a unitary authority with a budget of £350m and c8000 employees.  She chairs Falkirk Council’s Emergency Planning Executive Group and is responsible for leading the Council’s response to major incidents. The Falkirk Council area has the largest concentration of COMAH “Top Tier” establishments in Scotland and one of the largest in the UK.  As a result, Ms. Pitcaithly has been involved in the development of a number of specific contingency plans, including the offsite contingency plan for the Grangemouth Chemical Complex and the pipelines emergency plan.  She is also a key member of the Strategic Co-ordinating Group that oversees an integrated approach to emergency planning across the Forth Valley area. After studying law at Edinburgh University, Ms. Pitcaithly worked in private practice before joining the public sector.  She was appointed to the post of Assistant Chief Executive with the new Falkirk Council following local government reorganization in 1995 and was appointed Chief Executive in 1998.