Professional life

Telegraph Media Group: Executive Director, 2005-2018; Deputy Chairman, 2018-  

Director of Communications, Conservative Central Office and Press Secretary to Rt Hon Michael Howard QC, MP (Leader of the Opposition), 2003-05

Director, Press Complaints Commission, 1996-2003

Associate Director, Good Relations (1994-6); and Westminster Strategy (1992-4)

Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for Energy, 1989-1992

Conservative Research Department, 1986-89

For information on the House of Lords click here

Press and media freedom, and regulation

Chairman, Press Standards Board of Finance, 2009-14

Director, Advertising Standards Board of Finance, 2005-

President, Institute of Promotional Marketing, 2015 –

Director, Regulatory Funding Company, 2018 -; (Vice Chairman, 2021 - )

International media

Supervisory Board of WAN-IFRA (World Association of News Publishers), 2020- 

Vice-President, News Media Europe, 2015 -2021; Press Freedom Commissioner 2021 -

Chairman, Commonwealth Press Union Media Trust, 2009-

President, European Newspaper Publishers Association, 2014-2015

Media and press charities and organisations

Patron, Rory Peck Trust, 2014-

Vice President, The Journalists’ Charity, 2014-

President, The Printing Charity, 2013-15

President Emeritus, The Printing Charity 2015 -

President, The London Press Club, 2012-

House of Lords 

Appointed to the House of Lords as a Conservative Peer, July 2010

Committees and All Party Groups

Member, Joint Committee on the Online Safety Bill, 2021

Member, Steering Group for Change 2020-

Member, Select Committee on Democracy and Digital Technology, 2019-2020

Member, Select Committee on Sexual Violence in Conflict, 2015 -

Member, Information Committee, 2011- 2015

Member, Joint Parliamentary Committee on Privacy and Super-injunctions, 2011-12

Vice Chairman, All Party Parliamentary Groups on HIV; ITV; and Cats (APGOCATS). 

Co Chairman, APPG on Music Education

Co Chairman, APPG on Osteoporosis and Bone Health

Parliamentary record

For information on voting records, speeches and Parliamentary Questions please click here 

For Register of Interests click here

Legislation

Introduced the Welfare of Cats Bill as Private Members’ legislation in July 2014. For a copy of the Bill click here

Music

Chairman of the Royal College of Music, 2017 - (and member of Council since 2009)

Chairman, The Hanover Band, 2014-2017

Trustee, Mayor of London's Fund for Young Musicians, 2010-11

Honorary Member, Incorporated Society of Musicians, 2015

Public bodies and charities

Treasurer, Imperial War Museum Foundation, 2009-

Trustee, Imperial War Museum, 2007 - 2015

Honorary Vice President, Northern Ireland Schools Debating Competition, 2007-

Patron, International Cat Care, 2016 -

Patron, Terrence Higgins Trust, 2017-

St Bride’s

Master of St Bride's Guild, 2020 - 

Churchwarden, St Bride’s, 2014- 2017

Member of the Guild of St Bride, 2009-

Brentwood

Chairman of Governors, 2024-; Governor, Brentwood School, 2013-

President, Society of Old Brentwoods, 2012-13

Member, Brentwood District Council, 1988-1992

Honours and Awards

2016 - Awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations

2016 - Received Pink News "Peer of the Year" Award for contribution to LGBT rights

2017 - Received Journalists' Charity Award for outstanding contribution to journalists and journalism. 

Education

Peterhouse, Cambridge, MA in History, 1982-85. (Winner Sir Herbert Butterfield Prize for History, 1985; John Cosin Scholarship, 1984)

Brentwood School, Essex, 1971-81

Updated: April 2023