Mr Hughes has 35 years experience in policing and law enforcement. Since 1975, he had worked in Thames Valley Police until 1991 when he became an Assistant Chief Constable responsible for operations in West Yorkshire Police. In 1997, he was appointed Deputy Chief Constable in Hertfordshire and in 2000 as Director General (Chief Constable) of the National Crime Squad. When this agency was merged with the National Criminal Intelligence Service and HM Customs National Investigation Service into the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) in 2006, he was appointed as its first Director General. SOCA is the UK Interpol office and over 140 SOCA officers are based in more than 40 countries.

In 2000 - 2010, he was the UK Head of Delegation at the European Police Chiefs Task Force and he chaired the G8 Lyon Roma Police and Terrorism Group on Policing between 2001 and 2006. In 2003 - 2006, he was the Project Director for the Child Sexual Exploitation Database now in use in Interpol. He attended the 25th National Executive Institute Course at the FBI in Quantico in 2002 and the DEA National Leadership Course at Gettysburg in 2004. He has lectured widely on police and law enforcement issues. In 2010, he became a member of the Advisory Group for the Centre for Criminal Law and Criminal Justice at Durham University Law School. He was awarded the Queen's Police Medal in 2001 and was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2009.