Graham Miles

Graham specialises in regulatory law, predominantly in the area of fitness to practise. He also has considerable experience of advising regulatory bodies on issues of medical law, public law and human rights.

Main areas of practice

Graham is a Partner in the Professional Regulatory team based in the Cardiff Office.

He has experience of over 25 years acting for regulatory bodies in investigating and presenting fitness to cases involving nurses, midwives, pharmacists social care workers, solicitors and teachers.

In the field of social care, on behalf of Social Care Wales (SCW), he presents cases involving social workers and other categories of social care workers before Interim Orders Panels and Fitness to Practise Panels. Graham also drafted SCW’s rules, including those relating to the conduct of investigations, interim orders, fitness to practise hearings and registration appeals.

Graham also sits as Legal Adviser to Fitness to Practise Panels on behalf of the Teaching Regulation Agency in England and the Education Workforce Council (EWC) in Wales. He has advised both organisations in the drafting of procedural rules.  On behalf of the EWC, he also drafted rule rules relating to registration and Indicative Sanctions Guidance.

In the wider regulatory field, Graham has advised the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) since 1996. In that capacity he has continually provided advice on issues of medical and public law arising from the regulation of fertility treatment and research, including:

• acting as Legal Adviser to Statutory Approvals Committees relating to applications for testing of embryos for genetic and other conditions;
• defending judicial review challenges in a number of high profile cases, including successful defence in the Court of Appeal and House of Lords in R v Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, ex parte Josephine Quintavalle (on behalf of Comment of Reproductive Ethics) [2003]  UKHL 13;
  •       drafting general and special directions for import and export of gametes and embryos and advising in relation to individual applications to ensure compliance with rights arising in EU law and under the Human Rights Act.
  •       advising in relation to numerous cases involving consent to storage or treatment issues and drafting statutory consent forms.

Graham also advised the Human Tissue Authority in relation to a range of regulatory matters, including:

• drafting the HTA’s first guide to licensing;
• advising on the procedures for granting, varying and revoking licences;
• advising in relation to regulatory investigations.

He also defends applications for Judicial Review on behalf of a professional regulatory bodies.

Clients

Graham has acted for Social Care Wales (the regulatory body for social care workers in Wales, and its predecessor body since its establishment under the Care Standards Act 2000).

He acts as Legal Adviser in fitness to practise cases on behalf of the Teaching Regulation Agency in England and on behalf of the Education Workforce Council in Wales.

In the wider regulatory field, Graham has acted as an external legal adviser to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority since 1996. He also continues to act as an external legal adviser to the Human Tissue Authority.

Expertise

• Regulatory, Disciplinary & Compliance
• Healthcare
• Judicial Review
• Government
• Defending Professionals

Career

After qualifying as a Solicitor in 1983, Graham initially specialised in criminal law, including two years as a Crown Prosecutor and two years undertaking criminal defence work. He joined the firm in 1987 when he initially undertook a mixture of criminal and civil litigation. He was made a partner in 1990 and began specialising in regulatory work in 1996.