Interesting debate.
Stuff and
Bob Viking have it spot on - the current duty holder hierarchy requires each level of risk (specifically Risk to Life, although wider functional safety risk is salient) to be owned by those with the
authority and
resources to effectively manage that risk. As you may imagine, the higher levels of risk require owners with more levers to pull, hence more Group Captains these days. Most I have met performing these roles are
extremely switched on and often hampered by budget.
RA1210 illustrates the post Haddon-Cave SRM responsibilities:
https://www.gov.uk/government/public...k-risk-to-life
Obviously the realities are much more complicated and nuanced to warrant an exhaustive description of here but those are the bare bones of it.