Sir Peter Hendy nominated for Crossbench Peerage by PM

Sir Peter Hendy, chair of Network Rail has been nominated for a Crossbench Peerage by the Prime Minister.

The nomination was made to the King by Liz Truss, following recommendations made by the former Prime Minister, Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP.

New members are appointed to the House of Lords by the monarch, after being proposed by the Prime Minister. They are then responsible scrutinising bills that have been approved by the House of Commons.

He is among 26 nominations of new peers set to enter the House of Lords, which also includes Sir Winston Churchill’s grandson, Sir Nicholas Soames and former Northern Ireland First Minister Dame Arlene Foster.

Air Chief Marshall Sir Stuart Peach – Prime Minister’s Special Envoy to the Western Balkans and formerly Chief of Defence Staff has also been nominated as a crossbench peer.

As an outgoing prime minister, Mr Johnson had the right to draw up a dissolution or resignation honours list upon leaving office, while considering nominations from other political parties.

Since 2000, peers nominated by political parties have been vetted by the House of Lords Appointments Commission.

Crossbench peers traditionally are not members of any particular political party, and do not take the party whip. They sit on the benches that separate the main government and opposition frontbenches, known as the cross benches. As they do not have a party line, cross bench peers do not have a leader, but traditionally the most recent Commons Speaker to have joined the Lords acts as their convenor for administrative purposes. Currently, however, this is not the case – Baroness D’Souza has been convenor of the crossbench peers since 2007.

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