Judith Hackitt CBE took up her position in October and will hold the role for five years. During last Thursday's visit, she was given a tour of the Harpur Hill laboratory to find out more about the work being undertaken there.

She said: "The Health and Safety Commission (HSC) and Health and Safety Executive (HSE) are two separate bodies set up at the same time as the Health and Safety at work Act 1974.

"The idea is that the health and safety commission sets policy and strategic direction.

"The executive then implements that policy through providing the advice and knowledge and actually enforcing the regulations.

"With the work going on here in investigations and the essential forensic work, we are able to investigate incidents that have happened anywhere in the UK. With a big explosion like the Buncefield oil refinery, there is a lot of work going on here to try and understand how that happened, why it happened and why the explosion was so big. It was bigger than anyone thought it would be.

"It is about not just trying to understand what caused incidents to happen after the event but actually looking at ways to reduce the levels of risk so that incidents don't happen."

'Health and safety' is often quoted as a reason for preventing people from having fun – but that is far from the reality of the Commission's work, she said.

"What we care about is we still have 240 people being killed every year in the workplace and 140,000 people seriously injured.

"That is my aim: to bring this number down, not to stop people playing conkers."

After her visit Ms Hackitt said: "I have been impressed to see work taking place here which is of real value to Government and to business.

"Some of the work is really leading edge and world class.

"HSL is a vital part of the Buxton community. The laboratory employs almost 400 people so it is one of the major employers.

"The conferences and training that the laboratory holds bring in over a thousand international visitors a year to the region and many of these visitors will stay in the area as I did."

Ms Hackitt has been involved in the chemical industry for several years and has previously worked for Esso, was director general of the Chemical Industries Association and has also been a member of the health and safety commission.