Emily Miles appointed Chief Executive of the Care Quality Commission

Emily Miles has been appointed Chief Executive of the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Emily joins CQC from her current role as Director General for Food, Farming, and Biosecurity at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and will take up the role in the autumn from interim Chief Executive Dr Arun Chopra. Arun will be returning to his substantive role of Chief Inspector of Mental Health.

Emily has significant experience of regulation, including as CEO of the Food Standards Agency, overseeing food safety and protecting the consumer interest in the food system across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Her selection follows a recruitment process led by Kay Boycott, CQC’s Interim Chair, with the involvement of the non-executive members of CQC’s Board, representatives from stakeholder bodies and regulators, and Baroness Julia Neuberger, the government’s preferred candidate as CQC’s Chair.

Kay Boycott, Interim Chair of the CQC said: “I am pleased that Emily will be bringing her leadership and regulatory insight at such an important time for CQC. Her experience leading organisations through challenging times, driving a high-performance culture, delivering large-scale change programmes, and rebuilding stakeholder trust will be invaluable as we continue to turnaround CQC to do better for people who use, lead and work in health and care services.

“Emily’s experience of regulatory innovation will also be helpful as CQC adapts to the significant changes in the health and social care sector and uses our unique position in the regulatory landscape to help support improvement.

“We know how important this Chief Executive role is to ensure that we accelerate the progress we are making towards becoming the strong, effective regulator that people need and deserve – that’s why we conducted such a far-reaching and rigorous recruitment process. The Board are clear-sighted about the scale of the task still ahead for CQC and look forward to working with Emily and the team to drive this forward at pace.

“I would like to thank Arun for his support and commitment as Interim Chief Executive.”

Emily Miles said: “I’m delighted to have been appointed Chief Executive of the Care Quality Commission and look forward to starting the role later this year. My career has been built on public service and rooted in a deep commitment to putting people’s needs first. I’m immensely proud that I will have such a crucial role in delivering CQC’s vision that everyone gets safe, effective, compassionate care. 

“I will do all I can to make sure that the independent regulator of health and social care protects people and supports services to improve – as well as encouraging services to work better together so people stay well and get high-quality care when they need it.” 

This appointment follows the 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 next Chair of CQC.