ONE-TIME Royal Navy diver Chris Sherman, who saw action in the Falklands, is the new diving inspector at the Health and Safety Executive.

He spent 17 years as a specialist diving officer in the Royal Navy but left in 1993 to take up a post in the commercial diving industry overseas, before joining the Health and Safety Executive five years ago. Before his new appointment he was team leader of the HSE's southern diving inspection team, which is based in London.

Mr Sherman, 44, is married with three children and lives at Warsash.

He said: "The diving industry is an inherently hazardous one and my job will be to ensure that the risks are properly managed and controlled.''