Helen Holmes
Consultant

Helen is a Solicitor, Chartered Governance Professional, Adjudicator and Mediator. 

She has extensive public law experience, both advisory and judicial review, and has significant regulatory experience across a range of government organisations.  Helen  has worked at senior level in a range of complex public sector organisations as Legal Director.  

Helen has been instructed in a number of public inquiries including the Bristol Royal Infirmary Inquiry 2001; Victoria Climbie Inquiry 2023; Shipman Inquiry 2005 and Hillsborough Independent Panel 2012.

She is an adjudicator for a range of consumer panels at CEDR and is also a qualified CEDR mediator. 

Helen’s legal experience has been gained in the Royal College of Nursing in personal injury, defendant regulatory and public law, including advice on legislation and judicial review. She has been Head of Legal in the Human Tissue Authority, sponsored by the Department of Health, and the Security Industry Authority, sponsored by the Home Office. She was Legal Director at the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman. 

She has extensive expertise as Legal Director for all day to day business and corporate advice for the business including regulatory and licensing law, employment law, information governance and corporate governance, legal risk management and development of legal strategy. 

She has most recently been the Chief Operating Officer for the Office of Government Property for the Cabinet Office and has engaged with property divisions across all government departments.

Helen has a law degree, an MA Medical Ethics and Law, an MSc Health Policy, Planning and Finance and an MSc Corporate Governance.

Some of her reported legal cases include a unanimous House of Lords declaration of incompatibility under both Article 6 and Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights for s.82(4) (b) Care Standards Act 2000  (Wright v Secretary of States for Health and Education [2009] UKHL 3) and the Court of Appeal hearing on funding of nursing care where her approach to intervention was approved (R v North and East Devon Health Authority, ex p Coughlan [2001] QB 213).    

She has extensive experience of providing public law advice within organisations and engaging with a range of external stakeholders. This ranges from senior level engagement with Scotland Yard on criminal allegations of misconduct in public office, National Police Chiefs Council on criminal activity on organ donation, UK Border Agency on DNA testing of asylum seekers, NAO on audit of government property, and negotiating commercial agreements for use by private security companies for Commonwealth Games. Helen was the Human Tissue Authority senior advisor to the Hillsborough Independent Panel and also provided advice to the Welsh Government policy team on organ donation opt out. She has regularly engaged with Clerks for Select Committee hearings and been the lead for draft Bills and Statutory Instruments. 

She has extensive experience as an adjudicator for CEDR and as independent investigator for governance complaints at Board level.

Helen is a past Chair of RedR, the international disaster relief charity for engineers, a Trustee at International Health Exchange, THET and MS Trust, and is the current Chair of Wormwood Scrubs Pony Centre. She supports Bees for Development.