Mark Davies

Call: 2017

Direct access

Mark is an established junior with particular specialisms in regulatory (criminal and civil), public inquiries and inquests. His work encompasses:

Road transport (including public inquiries and impounding hearings before the Traffic Commissioners, appeals to the Upper Tribunal, clandestine penalty entrant appeals and general advice work);
Health and safety (including criminal proceedings, civil appeals against notices and inquests);
Environmental and planning (including rights of way issues, enforcement matters, planning inquiries, criminal proceedings and related matters under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002);
Food law (including acting for major retailers in hearings arising from unsatisfactory food safety and hygiene inspections);
Fire and building safety (including advising on matters arising from the changes to the fire and building safety regime post-Grenfell and acting in appeals against notices served by fire and rescue authorities);
Other regulatory (including prosecutions brought by water undertakers, matters involving abattoirs and slaughtermen, actions arising out of the health and social care legislation and housing matters);
Public inquiries (including the Grenfell Tower Inquiry and the UK Covid-19 Inquiry);
Licensing (including taxi licensing and proceedings under the Licensing Act 2003).

Further details of his recent cases may be found using the links on the left.

Mark is qualified to accept instructions under the Public Access scheme.

Mark has a particular specialism in road transport law (heavy goods and public service vehicles) and is frequently called upon to represent operators, transport managers and drivers at public inquiries and hearings before the Traffic Commissioners.

He also has experience across the full range of transport related matters, including appeals against penalties imposed when clandestine entrants are discovered in vehicles, impounding hearings and related criminal proceedings (for example tachograph offences).

His advice is regularly sought in respect of appeals to the Upper Tribunal.

Specific examples of his road transport work include:

Securing a warning for a vocational driver who had been involved in a bridge strike;
Overturning the penalties imposed on an operator for clandestine entrants (as referenced in the Court of Appeal judgment in KLG Trucking SRL v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWCA Civ 737);
Obtaining a stay of revocation for a major coach operator pending appeal to the Upper Tribunal;
Appearing for operators at ‘environmental’ public inquiries where local residents object to the continuation of operating centres;
Advising in respect of the ambit of exemptions and derogations from the scheme of operator licensing and drivers’ hours recording.

He is regularly invited to speak at conferences on road transport law.

Mark is a member of the Association of Road Transport Lawyers.

Mark has worked on matters concerning health and safety law since joining Chambers as a tenant in September 2017. He is a member of the Attorney-General’s Regulatory List (C Panel) and has experience prosecuting and defending, as well as in respect of appeals against civil notices and attendant inquest proceedings.

Specific examples of his health and safety work include:

Acting for the HSE in the prosecution of an oil major and its supplier of walk-to-work equipment following an accident in the North Sea (led by Pascal Bates);
Appearing for one of the world’s largest air services providers in inquest proceedings following the death of one of its workers at Heathrow airport;
Representing a major supplier of the British Army in respect of an ongoing service inquiry called under the Armed Forces (Service Inquires) Regulations 2008 following the death of a trooper;
An appeal to the High Court following the decision of the Employment Tribunal to quash an improvement notice served by the HSE (led by Gordon Menzies);
Prosecuting a private healthcare provider with a turnover of £950m for health and safety offences following an incident of chlorine gas being created in one of its plant rooms.

Mark is a member of the Health and Safety Lawyers Association.

Mark has considerable experience advising and acting for clients across a range of environmental and planning matters, including nuisance, enforcement and planning inquiries, criminal proceedings for environmental offences and judicial review. He is a member of the Attorney-General’s Regulatory List (C Panel).

Specific examples of his environmental and planning work include:

Securing a significant settlement for clients blighted by nuisance from a wind farm where the case involved consideration of the abandonment of planning uses;
Prosecuting large scale environmental offending in respect of the improper storage and disposal of medical waste (led by Mark Harris);
Appearing in a two-week planning inquiry concerned with an application for a major new supermarket within a high risk flood zone;
Acting for the Environment Agency in one of the only statutory arbitrations established under the provisions of the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975;
Advising a local authority in respect of the appropriate procedure to judicially review one of its own decisions after identifying an error in the process.

Mark is the Secretary of the Planning and Environmental Bar Association.

He is ranked as a ‘Rising Star’ in Planning by Legal 500, 2025

Mark is experienced in acting for businesses facing the negative consequences of poor food hygiene and safety inspections, including appealing against Hygiene Emergency Prohibition Notices and acting in subsequent criminal proceedings.

Specific examples of his food law work include:

Persuading a local authority to accept pleas to three out of eleven charges and to sentence on a low culpability (as opposed to high culpability) basis resulting in a £1,000 fine for a company with a turnover of c.£8.5m;
Appearing for a major coffee shop group with a turnover of over £16m in sentencing for three offences concerning mice in its premises and securing a total fine of just £4,900;
Acting for a major retailer in appealing against a Hygiene Emergency Prohibition Notice where the local authority had repeatedly raised issues of poor pest control in store;
Advising a store owner as to the appropriate responses to a request for written responses to an interview under caution in respect of alleged food safety offences;
Appearing for a major supermarket chain in respect of proceedings arising out of the Prices Act 1974.

Mark is a member of the Food Law Group.

From his work on the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, Mark has excellent familiarity with the fire and building safety framework (including in respect of the Building Safety Act 2022 and its application).

Specific examples of his fire and building safety work include:

Advising on liability for historic building design faults in light of the post-Grenfell building safety regime;
Defending a hotel charged with a number of breaches of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005;
Appearing for a rail operator in an appeal against an enforcement notice served by the local fire and rescue authority;
Advising on the correct requirements and allocation of responsibility for fire doors in a block of flats;
Acting on behalf of a major provider of social housing facing proceedings for alleged failures to maintain the safety of a tenanted building.

Mark is confident in advising on any matters touching on regulation in addition to his core areas of practice identified above.

Specific examples of his wider regulatory practice include:

Acting for the director of a major road sweeper company who had been personally prosecuted by a statutory water undertaker for stand-pipe offences;
Matters arising under the Health and Social Care Act 2008, whether criminal proceedings or civil appeals;
Advising the executors of an estate as to the appeal of improvement/prohibitions notices served on them under the provisions of the Housing Act 2004;
Assisting a German company on the regulatory requirements in respect of the import of goods into the United Kingdom;
Defending several slaughtermen for alleged breaches of the Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing (England) Regulations 2015.

Mark accepts instructions to act for core participants and individual witnesses in statutory and non-statutory public inquiries.

He has considerable experience of the public inquiry process having acted for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (led by Jason Beer KC) throughout the Grenfell Tower Inquiry and the Department of Health and Social Care (led by Sam Stein KC and Fiona Scolding KC) in the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.

He is ranked as a ‘Leading Junior’ for Inquests and Inquiries by Legal 500, 2025.

Mark is comfortable acting in licensing proceedings, whether taxi or private hire vehicle or under the provisions of the Licensing Act 2003.

Specific examples of his licensing work include:

Appearing for a private hire vehicle whose licence had been revoked following a change in national policy regarding sexual offences where the driver in question had a historic conviction for sexual assault that had always been declared to the local authority;
Acting for Kent Police in a premises licence review for a nightclub in a major Kent town;
Acting for Kent Police in the premises licence review of Dreamland in Margate following the tragic death of a 17-year-old girl who had attended an event at the venue;
Advising on the interplay between the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 and the Gambling Act 2005 in the context of an operating licence appeal before the First-tier Tribunal;

Advising on the application of section 5 of the Gambling Act and section 235 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.

25th March 2025

Members appointed as Specialist Regulatory Advocates

We are pleased to announce that the Regulatory Board that operates a Panel Counsel list on behalf of the Attorney General has appointed the...

15th November 2024

Operator’s Licence Win in Long Planning Saga

Mark Davies, dealing with traffic matters, and Anne Williams, dealing with planning matters, represented Kingswood Pallets Ltd in a public inquiry held on 18...

11th November 2024

Webinar – Clandestine entrants: the lay of the land following the decision in KLG Trucking

Last Friday, Mark Davies joined Jack Trowsdale from Kennedys in the first of their Fleet Friday Compliance Month Webinar series. This first session offered...

20th March 2024

Mark Davies was successful in securing the cancellation of a penalty imposed following the discovery of a clandestine entrant in a heavy goods vehicle

The Designated Civil Judge for Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, HHJ Coe KC, has cancelled a penalty imposed on Mark’s client (a major European haulier) following...

15th January 2024

Richard Barraclough KC, leading Mark Davies, concludes Two Multi-Million Pound Mediations

Richard Barraclough KC has concluded two multi million Pound mediations the first involving a £6M claim by a Utilities company for energy supplied the...

15th December 2023

Pascal Bates and Mark Davies in Shell offshore safety case

Pascal Bates had led Mark Davies on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive in a case against Shell UK Limited and Ampelmann Operations...

5th September 2023

Richard Barraclough KC and Mark Davies acted for the applicants in their application for an interim injunction

Richard Barraclough KC and Mark Davies acted for the applicants in their application for an interim injunction. Megan Thomas KC advised on the planning...

29th October 2021

Diversion Orders Webinar

The second webinar in our Public Rights of Way series will cover Diversion Orders.

3rd September 2021

DMMO Applications webinar

The first webinar in our Public Rights of Way series will cover DMMO Applications and be held on 6th September.

14th July 2021

Public rights of way webinar series

Six Pump Court Chambers will be presenting a series of three webinars on public rights of way.

27th March 2020

The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020

Mark Watson QC and Mark Davies consider the new Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020 and the impact on businesses.

13th January 2020

Maids Moreton Murder – Catch A Killer Documentary

The trial of Ben Field features in tonight’s episode of the Catch A Killer documentary on Channel 4.

21st October 2019

Sentence in Maids Moreton Murder

Sentence in the case of Ben Field was passed on Friday, following his conviction for the murder of the retired Stowe School teacher, Peter Farquhar.

10th September 2019

Deadline approaches for pension schemes

Christopher Badger and Mark Davies have written an article on the implications of amendments to the Occupational Pension Schemes (Investment) Regulations 2005 which require trustees to update their ‘Statement of Investment Principles’ (“SIP”).

13th August 2019

Murder Conviction in Maids Moreton Trial: Oliver Saxby QC and Mark Davies for the Crown

The trial of Field, Smith and Field finished last Friday with the conviction of the principal defendant, Ben Field, of the murder of the retired English teacher, Peter Farquhar.

7th May 2019

Maids Moreton murder trial – Oliver Saxby QC leading for Crown

The trial of Field, Smyth and Field began last Tuesday at Oxford Crown Court. The three face allegations relating to five victims.

22nd February 2019

Comply first and fight later: the law relating to section 20 requests

Gordon Menzies and Mark Davies have written an article concerning the wide-ranging powers provided by section 20 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

3rd October 2017