Lord Prior of Brampton
On 21 December 2016, Lord Prior of Brampton (David Prior) was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with responsibilities including construction, where he took over from Jess Norman.
He previously served as Member of Parliament for North Norfolk from 1997 to 2001 and went on to become deputy chairman and CEO of the Conservative Party. He is now a Conservative member of the House of Lords.
He was Department of Health as Minister for NHS Productivity from May 2015 until December 2016 and was also on the Commons Select Committee for Trade and Industry.
He is the son of former Cabinet minister Jim Prior, who died in 2016.
His wide-ranging responsibilities include:
- Industrial strategy
- Lords lead on all BEIS issues
- Industrial policy (with the Minister of State for Climate Change and Industry)
- technology
- infrastructure
- construction
- professional services
- rail supply chain
- defence
- maritime
- Life sciences
- EU single market
- deregulation and regulatory reform
- Land Registry
- Ordnance Survey
- Companies House
- Corporate minister
Chief Executive of the Federation of Master Builders, Brian Berry, said: “We welcome the appointment of Lord Prior, whose combination of political and professional experience should leave him well placed to forge the strong, collaborative relationship that is needed between industry and Government."
In October 2017, Lord Prior was replaced as Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) by The Rt Hon. the Lord Henley (Oliver Eden).
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