CQC Names Emily Miles as New Chief Executive
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has confirmed Emily Miles as its new Chief Executive, with the appointment taking effect this autumn.
Emily joins CQC from her current role as Director General for Food, Farming and Biosecurity at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). She takes over from Dr Arun Chopra, who has been serving as interim Chief Executive and will return to his substantive role as Chief Inspector of Mental Health.
Before her time at Defra, Emily was Chief Executive of the Food Standards Agency, where she oversaw food safety and consumer protection across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, giving her a track record of leading regulatory organisations through periods of significant change.
The appointment followed a recruitment process led by Kay Boycott, CQC’s Interim Chair, involving the regulator’s non-executive board members, representatives from stakeholder bodies and other regulators, and Baroness Julia Neuberger, the government’s preferred candidate for CQC’s next Chair.
Announcing the appointment, Kay Boycott said Emily’s experience leading organisations through change, building high-performing teams and rebuilding stakeholder trust would support CQC as it continues working to become a stronger, more effective regulator.
The news follows the earlier announcement by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, James Murray MP, that Rabbi Baroness Julia Neuberger DBE is the preferred candidate for CQC’s next Chair.
For providers using digital tools to manage compliance, settled leadership at the top of CQC is a useful signal. It points to continuity in the regulator’s ongoing turnaround programme, its single assessment framework, and the pace of inspection activity, all of which shape what good evidence and reporting look like in practice.
If you’d like to see how HLTH Manage keeps your compliance records and evidence aligned with CQC’s current framework, get in touch.