Direct ministerial appointments to the House of Lords

What is a direct ministerial appointment to the House of Lords?

Convention dictates that a government minister must be a member of the House of Commons or the House of Lords. If the prime minister wants to appoint a minister who is not a sitting MP or serving peer, the usual course of action is to ennoble that person, making them a member of the House of Lords.

Most ministers are appointed from the House of Commons, as MPs are elected and therefore possess more direct democratic legitimacy, but the government still needs representatives in the Lords and so continues to appoint ministers from the upper chamber. This includes not only Lords whips – who handle a range of government business – but also ministers with full departmental roles.

Often these appointments are to junior ministerial roles. The leader of the House of Lords is often a member of the cabinet, but it is rare for other peers to hold cabinet positions. There are some notable exceptions, however: David Cameron was ennobled and made foreign secretary in November 2023, becoming the first foreign secretary to serve from the upper chamber since Lord Carrington (1979–82).

How are direct ministerial appointments made?

Direct ministerial appointments are made in the same way as other appointments to the Lords, with nominees vetted by the House of Lords Appointment Commission (HOLAC) and the peerage conferred by the King. HOLAC has indicated that it will expedite vetting for ministerial appointees. ²² House of Lords Appointments Commission, ‘Vetting’, retrieved 4 March 2024, lordsappointments.independent.gov.uk/vetting

The appointment process often results in a short gap between an appointment to ministerial office and introduction to the House of Lords: Lord Grimstone, for instance, was made a business minister by Boris Johnson in March 2020 but was not introduced to the Lords for more than a month. This gap can be reduced by seeking approval from HOLAC before a ministerial appointment is announced, as was reported to have occurred when David Cameron was appointed foreign secretary.

Why does the prime minister make direct ministerial appointments to the Lords?

Prime ministers appoint ministers from outside parliament for a range of reasons.

Experts from industry or academia are often ennobled and appointed as ministers on account of their experience or specialist knowledge. This was particularly common in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, when Gordon Brown and David Cameron appointed experts on economics, banking and finance from outside parliament to their governments.

In other cases, prime ministers ennoble former MPs, including those who have stepped down from parliament or lost their seats, in order to allow them to carry on in an existing ministerial role. Nicky Morgan stood down as an MP at the 2019 general election but was appointed to the Lords and continued as culture secretary until February 2020. Less frequently, prime ministers may also ennoble special advisers and appoint them as ministers: Lord Adonis, the head of Tony Blair’s policy unit, was made a minister in the Department for Education and Skills in 2005.

Other individuals may be ennobled and appointed as advisers to government rather than as full ministers (these roles are sometimes referred to informally as ‘tsars’). For instance, Theresa May elevated John Mann, a former Labour MP, to the Lords in October 2019 in order to appoint him as the independent adviser on anti-Semitism. Likewise, Gordon Brown appointed Alan Sugar to the Lords and made him ‘enterprise champion’ – a role he was re-appointed to by David Cameron in 2016.

How often are direct ministerial appointments made?

Historically, the Lords was composed almost exclusively of hereditary peers, with a vanishingly small number of individuals appointed for life, primarily serving judges. The Life Peerages Act of 1958 provided for the creation of new life peers, who were eligible to sit and vote in the House of Lords. ²³ House of Lords Library, The Life Peerages Act 1958, 21 April 2008, www.parliament.uk/globalassets/documents/lords-library/hlllifepeeragesact1958.pdf  From then on, it became possible for prime ministers to directly appoint ministers from outside parliament by ennobling them.

A number of direct ministerial appointments were made by Margaret Thatcher, but the practice became more common under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. ²⁴ Yong B and Hazell R, Putting Goats Amongst the Wolves: Appointing Ministers from Outside Parliament, Constitution Unit, January 2011, p. 32.  Gordon Brown pledged to form a ‘government of all the talents' and appointed numerous ministers directly to the House of Lords. These included ministers of state, like Baroness Vadera, and even secretaries of state like Lord Adonis (transport secretary) and Lord Mandelson (business secretary). Since 1997, 44 direct ministerial appointments have been made, with 29 since 2010 alone. ²⁵ Institute for Government analysis of Kelly R, Ministers in the House of Lords, House of Commons Library, 6 February 2024; Yong B and Hazell R, Putting Goats Amongst the Wolves; and news reports

Three direct ministerial appointments were made by Liz Truss in her seven weeks as prime minister, including that of Nick Markham – the co-founder of a Covid testing firm – to the Department of Health and Social Care ²⁶ Mason R, ‘Conservative health minister has big stake in Covid testing firm’, The Guardian, 23 January 2023, www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jan/23/conservative-health-minister-stake-covid-nick-markham-cignpost-investments  and former deputy chair of the Conservative Party Dominic Johnson to the Department for International Trade.

Three appointments have been made by Rishi Sunak. Sunak appointed former prime minister David Cameron as foreign secretary in November 2023. This was followed by the appointments of Scottish businessman and landowner Robbie Douglas-Miller as a parliamentary under secretary of state in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in December 2023 and member of the Scottish Parliament Donald Cameron to the Scotland Office in January 2024.

Why are direct ministerial appointments to the House of Lords sometimes criticised?

Ministers appointed directly to the Lords have sometimes been criticised as lacking democratic legitimacy, as unlike ministers from the Commons they are unelected. Members of the House of Lords are appointed for life so directly appointed ministers will retain their seats in parliament after leaving ministerial office.

Direct ministerial appointments also increase the total membership of the House of Lords, which already contains nearly 800 peers. The Lord Speaker’s committee on the size of the House recommended in 2017 that a ‘two out, one in’ model be adopted for appointments to the Lords, ²⁷ Report of the Lord Speaker’s committee on the size of the House, 31 October 2017  a measure welcomed by all parties. Direct ministerial appointments often exceed the rate of retirement from the Lords, undermining this ambition. 

MPs have also expressed concern that Lords ministers are not subject to scrutiny in the elected house. This problem was felt to be particularly acute when secretaries of state were appointed from the Lords. Following the appointment of Lord Cameron as foreign secretary in November 2023, the Speaker wrote to the Procedure Committee to ask they look into the matter. The committee recommended in January 2024 that secretaries of state who sat in the Lords should be brought to the bar of the House of Commons to answer questions from MPs. ²⁸ House of Commons Procedure Committee, Commons scrutiny of Secretaries of State in the House of Lords, 17 January 2024