Holgate was educated at Davenant Foundation Grammar School and Exeter College, Oxford.

On 1 December 2014, Holgate was appointed to be a Justice of the High Court and assigned to the Queen’s Bench Division, on the retirement of Mr Justice Ramsey, receiving the customary knighthood the following year.

[1] He has been President of the Upper Tribunal Lands Chamber since 2016 and Planning Liaison Judge since 2017.

[3] On 13 September 2024, Holgate ruled against Woodhouse Colliery, a plan for the UK's first deep coal mine since 1986.

He found that Michael Gove acted unlawfully in accepting West Cumbria Mining's claim that the mine would be net zero, because this relied on offsetting through carbon credits purchased from abroad.