Hugh Davies OBE KC

Institutional safeguarding; regulation of international aid workers; voluntary activity overview

He regularly conducts cases before the Administrative Court, for example representing the Office of Rail Regulation in a challenge against it by West Coast Railway Company relating to an obligation to install electronic locking on its ‘heritage’ trains (including the ‘Harry Potter’ train in Scotland). He was one of five specialist independent advisors in the recently-concluded ORR review of penalty fare evasion on the national rail network.

Organisational safeguarding and associated regulatory investigations and engagement

His voluntary role with CEOP produced an interest in wider safeguarding matters and a series of instructions to lead investigations into organisational safeguarding and regulatory failures.

Southbank International School: William Vahey

In 2012 – 2014 William Vahey, a highly experienced and respected teacher at a sequence of international schools, was found to have drugged, sexually abused and photographed dozens of children from Southbank International School on residential trips he had set up and organised. He committed suicide pending investigation. Hugh Davies KC was appointed by the corporate owners of the school to conduct a wholly independent investigation into all aspects of this apparent failure of superintendence, including regulatory compliance; reporting; safeguarding training and recording; decision-making; and simply to establish what happened. He appointed and led a multi-specialist investigation team. We conducted a detailed, forensic, inquiry into events. We had to win the trust of an initially hostile school community and of witnesses, not least those perceiving that they were vulnerable to critical findings. This required him to understand the school as an organisation at and from every level and perspective, and interviewing a series of witnesses in person.

The interim and final reports were acknowledged to be both thorough and forensic, addressing both the facts and multiple regulatory considerations. Of wider application, he recommended that the statutory and cultural threshold for reporting concerns in schools should be changed from the language of reporting an ‘allegation’ to a ‘neutral notification’ of a ‘concern’. Through the intermediate step of the national safeguarding committee (see below), this recommendation has become the ‘low level concerns’ policy that is now mandatory under the statutory Keeping Children Safe in Education (‘KCSIE’) guidance. It now applies to all schools; it may be extended to other contexts, e.g. policing.

The Scouts Association (‘TSA’)

Between 2013 and 2015 he was appointed to lead a ‘root-and-branch’ review of all aspects of safeguarding within TSA, including but not limited to a review of all safeguarding records (extending back over 40 years) to ensure that the appropriate outcome had been achieved. This review alone was a huge exercise, and he appointed a specialist team of former police officers to conduct it under his superintendence. Outcomes were reviewed by Hugh Davies KC in each case: many individuals were removed from TSA in consequence. Regulatory reports were made as to others.

More widely he had to review and understand the safeguarding, misconduct and corporate governance arrangements at TSA at granular level – e.g. the formatting of data on their system – such as to recommend reform. He had to interview and understand this from the perspective of the most junior employee up to CEO, and interview those in each category. To achieve this he had to obtain their trust in terms of confidentiality. He also attended and reviewed the delivery of safeguarding training as it was given, and obtained evidence directly from those who had been subject to investigation to understand and improve the process.

His final report recommended, and resulted in, a complete and extensive redrafting of TSA’s safeguarding and misconduct process, including the language of correspondence with those under investigation. Other changes had been recommended and implemented during the three year process. The recommendations introduced independence and expertise to the appeals process, a matter of some sensitivity to those previously discharging this function. He recommended investment in new technology to promote the effectiveness of the safeguarding team. The reforms and recommendations were fully adopted, and reported independently to the Trustees in person a year later as to their (successful) implementation.

Independent Review of RNIB’s Safeguarding Management and Governance of Regulated Services

The Royal National Institute of the Blind had an income of c. £100m and a highly complex corporate group structure through which it delivered its charitable objectives. It invested some £30m in a state-of-the-art residential Centre for Specialist Learning (‘the Pears Centre’, Coventry). Opening in 2012 and operating in its own grounds, it combined on a single site an Ofsted-regulated specialist school for those aged 11 – 18 years with visual impairment and multiple (severe) disabilities or complex needs, and provided residential facilities in five bungalows for up to 30 children. Four of these constituted children’s homes also regulated by Ofsted. From 2015 it provided specialist care to children with such highly complex medical needs that registration with, and inspection by, CQC was required. For some of these children it was effectively an alternative to permanent high-intensity care and residence in hospital.

By 2018 a series of serious incidents had been reported escalating to service of Notices of Proposal to end the statutory registrations to provide these services. The Charity Commission opened a statutory class inquiry in March 2018 under section 46 of the Charities Act 2011. This gave it access to a range of investigative, protective and remedial legal powers.

With the Charity Commission’s approval Hugh Davies KC was appointed by RNIB to lead the investigation. The original Terms of Reference were extended when, following further regulatory failures and the decline in the safety and operation of the Centre, RNIB announced it was closing the centre in August 2018. This was catastrophic for those attending, and raised acute regulatory and reputational concerns.

He led a de facto public inquiry into these events and failures in corporate governance. He appointed two senior experts to provide resilience and depth to my conclusions (one a SEND specialist; the other a veteran social worker). The subject matter was intrinsically complex and the context in human terms demanding and sensitive. Allegations of physical and psychological abuse of acutely vulnerable children were made by parents during our evidence-gathering and we referred these to the police. The investigation required extensive interviews with relevant current and former trustees, executive directors, heads of service, service leads, local managers and delivery staff at all levels. These parties were often defensive as to their responsibilities and routinely highly critical of others in the organisation and of the RNIB group generally.

The conduct of the investigation was superintended throughout by the Charity Commission. The review required visits to, and a detailed evidence-led understanding of, multiple other RNIB sponsored facilities, including residential care homes and non-residential primary schools. He had to understand the detailed regimes operated by CQC and Ofsted.

The final report consisted of some 648 paragraphs of analysis over 157 pages excluding appendices. There was a separate Executive Summary, and 22 detailed recommendations. It included a review of all of RNIB’s safeguarding management systems, policies, processes and structures; a review of case files from the Pears Centre and other regulated settings to assess actual compliance as against system requirements for compliance;  and analysis of RNIB’s governance structure and oversight of the operation of its establishment-based (i.e. non online) regulated specialist services.

Based on this report the Charity Commission produced and distributed guidance nationally to all charities. This included the necessity of safeguarding expertise within the body of Trustees of any organisation where the charitable objectives engage safeguarding responsibilities.

Following the report the senior leadership team at RNIB was replaced, as was the majority of trustees.

Other associated advisory work

He advises as to safeguarding and misconduct matters in different contexts. Immediate instructions include advising the University of Oxford as to its procedures for investigating and determining allegations of sexual misconduct, and the parameters of duties of care. This involves understanding a highly complex University structure in terms of jurisdiction and governance. He voluntarily drafted and developed policies for his former college directed at fitness to study; misconduct; and safeguarding. These have been largely adopted across the University.

Wider voluntary activity

DCMS Domestic Charity Safeguarding Programme Group 2018 –

Hugh Davies KC has been a voluntary member of this Programme Group since 2018. It is FCDO led; chaired independently; and involves collaboration by multiple individuals and organisations that previously may not each have perceived they could do so. The outcomes to date are substantial and at a national level, providing guidance, training and accessible materials for anyone with safeguarding responsibilities. Following the Southbank report, he was a voluntary co-author of the 2020 guidance Developing and implementing a low-level concerns policy: A guide for organisations which work with children. This was adopted by the Programme Group, and subsequently integrated nationally to KCSIE.

DFID/FCDO Aid Worker Passport Steering Committee 2019 –

The Steering Committee is directed at developing the concept of an aid worker ‘passport’ as agreed in principle by the signatories to the commitments made by multiple countries and the EU at or following the 2018 London Safeguarding Summit. The Summit was directed at promoting international initiatives to address sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment (‘SEAH’) in the international aid sector.

From 2019 Hugh Davies KC has been a voluntary member of this Steering Committee. It is led and co-ordinated by FCDO but is constituted by multiple cross-sector domestic and international actors, including international aid sector charities; Interpol; the Aid Worker Registration Scheme; UK policing agencies; and a specialist MP.

He secured pro bono legal representation by a major international law firm to promote the committee’s work.

He was asked to write the necessary legal review of how such an aid worker passport scheme could be created and delivered in practice, not least given international jurisdictional considerations and differences in relation to data management between such jurisdictions. This required me to research an extensive range of topics that were engaged, including whether and to what extent safeguarding was a relevant consideration to those providing aid (usually State actors); safeguarding auditing in practice;  misconduct investigations by different organisations (e.g. the differences between those acting for the United Nations as peacekeepers, and those deployed by aid agencies); and the legal and technical challenges in terms of data recording and management. He co-opted a specialist Associate Professor from the University of Oxford to advise, and two graduates to research and compile the extensive library of background material he had to consider in order to report.

The final report was necessarily detailed – extending to over 200 paragraphs of analysis, with additional extensive footnoted references – and reflected over 4 months’ committed work following accumulation of materials. It had to be credible to an international audience of pre-existing specialists in different capacities and organisations. It made multiple recommendations as to how an international passport scheme could be delivered (at my recommendation, now styled a ‘registration scheme’) and what else is required (e.g. mandatory safeguarding audits and inspections as a condition of funding; vetting of recruits) for it to be effective. Based on the report further detailed consultation has occurred – as to technical, operational, and legal implementation – an FCDO funded pilot scheme was commissioned. If successful it may lead to a major international initiative to register aid workers across the sector.

Interpol: Project Soteria Advisory Board 2021 –

Based on this Legal Review Hugh Davies KC was invited to be on the Advisory Board to the associated Interpol Operation Soteria. Stated shortly, this is Interpol’s multi-faceted initiative/project better to deliver protection, detection and investigation of SEAH in the aid sector in terms of operational policing and wider civic enforcement. He has advised from 2020, and continues to do so at its regular meetings. This requires review of the detailed processes it is following.

National County Lines Coordination Centre: Guidance and Advisory Committee 2022 –

His wider experience in relation to civil prevention orders; child exploitation; and prosecuting crime – many young offenders have graduated from county lines to violence – generated involvement with the National County Lines Co-ordination Centre (‘NCLCC’). He initiated and was lead author of a detailed (94 page) hyperlinked document providing guidance as to slavery trafficking risk and prevention orders in the context of county lines, and have been active in delivering training at a national level in relation to this and the development of online materials associated with it. To give the NCLCC guidance credibility, and to ensure it fully reflected the multiple considerations engaged, they consulted with others outside policing: he obtained detailed insights from leading academics; a person with a formal liaison role between the police and young violent offenders in Hackney; and those at The Children’s Society. Each of these consultees was content to have their role acknowledged on the face of the guidance.

The guidance not only reflects the practical necessity and purpose of such prevention orders in modern policing, but – as progressively – the necessity of supporting the subject of any such order to help them navigate away from crime. This addresses the reality that the same child may concurrently be exploiting others and subject to exploitation themselves.

He was a voluntary member of the NCLCC multi-agency (including the CPS) Modern Slavery and Exploitation Advisory Board, addressing multiple aspects of policing in this context. This was disbanded in 2024, but I continue to advise and support the present delivery team nationally.

Equality Diversity and Inclusion (‘EDI’) committee and LAET 2021 –

Since 2021 he has been the EDI lead at chambers. Aside from ensuring basic regulatory compliance, and improving the language used in recruitment and on our website, He initiated and continues to lead a unique partnership arrangement between chambers and the London Academy of Excellence Tottenham (‘LAET’). LAET is a successful sixth-form college recruiting predominantly from Haringey, one of the most economically deprived areas in London. The students are from diverse backgrounds, predominantly Black or Asian heritage, and also predominantly likely to be first generation to university and/or the professions.

The partnership – called the ‘3RB Future Lawyers Programme’ – is now into its fifth year and is multi-faceted. It includes one-to-one mentoring (with advanced DBS vetting), with over 100 students being mentored already and an expectation this will continue through university. This mentoring includes recommended reading/activity, and advice as to university application forms. The wider programme has included a five week ‘Real Work’ exercise (involving c. 60 students, not limited to future lawyers, taking prosecution and defence briefs on an evolving case scenario, culminating in closing speeches); public speaking training over many weeks, culminating in an annual chambers sponsored public speaking competition involving over 40 students on a Saturday, and participation in the national mock trial and Mace competitions; work experience (i.e. visiting court with mentors); and public speakers visiting the school on a range of topical societal matters, not limited to legal matters.

Media

He has appeared in print and broadcast media periodically, most usually in connection with the existence and purpose of civil prevention orders (e.g. two live appearances as lead item on Woman’s Hour); was a contributor to the Bafta award-winning documentary The Paedophile Hunter (relating to a specific vigilante involved in setting up those arranging to meet children for sexual purposes, and then exposing them online as well as reporting them to the police); appeared occasionally on Channel 4 News; BBC radio news; and for reported opinion in newspaper articles. He was a contributor to the ITV Exposure documentary in relation to the experience of women in policing following Baroness Casey’s report into the MPS.