On retiring from PSD early in 2009, Peter joined JSC on a part-time basis.

After graduating from Leicester Polytechnic and Wolverhampton Polytechnic, Peter was initially appointed as a wheat breeder at the Plant Breeding Institute in Cambridge. Having decided that this was not a long term career option, he then joined the UK government civil service working variously for the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food (MAFF), the Department for Environment, Food and Regulatory Affairs (Defra) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). During his early days with MAFF he gained Master of Philosophy degree in Horticulture from the University of Reading.

His career has taken him to farms across the length and breadth of the country, interviewing farmers on their use of pesticides on agricultural and horticultural crops, working on plant health policy, doing plant health research and development, efficacy evaluation and attempting to find crop protection solutions for minor uses.

In recent years, Peter was closely involved with the development and establishment of PSD (now CRD) as a leading global regulatory agency for the registration of plant protection products. He has worked closely with both the European Commission’s Health and Consumer Directorate (DG SANCO) and the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) in developing procedures for the completion of the EU review of existing active substances, and for the evaluation of new active substances.  He has been a member of a number of DG SANCO’s expert groups, including Stage 4 EC Review, Post Annex I Issues, Annex I Renewal and has worked closely with DG SANCO and EFSA officials on procedural aspects of registration procedures.  He has provided high-level training on EU procedural developments and on institutional structure for a number of the newer EU member states and candidate countries.   

In early 2009, Peter took up bee keeping, and is looking forward to being able to produce his first crop of honey in 2010.  In his spare time he also manages to tend his garden and allotment and do his bit to keep small breweries in business!