More than one in four Conservative peers - 62 out of the total of 216 - and many other members of the House of Lords have a direct financial interest in the radical re-shaping of the NHS in England that is perilously close to being enacted. These peers have been able to vote on the crucial divisions that will determine the immediate and long-term future of the NHS and the coalition’s Health and Social Care bill.

The peers – who have personal interests in insurance companies, private health-care and private equity groups – have placed themselves into a position in which they are in danger of voting on behalf of the personal and private interests that stand to gain from the bill rather than in the public interest.

None of them of course have been elected by the public. If they were elected local council members such personal interests would debar them from voting. This is just one aspect of the lax governance of the upper chamber where peers have manifold personal interests across most of the political and economic agenda; and which notoriously provides an elevated home for an active lobbying hub.

In this article at the request of OurKingdom I am pursuing and updating research into Lords’ interests that first appeared on my blog, Social Investigations.  This earlier research grew out of a Daily Mirror article in October 2011, which revealed that 40 peers had links to private health-care companies; that number has now grown to 100 and counting. This new stage of my research on OurKingdom will be updated as it goes on. So I have yet to complete the research into the health-care and associated interests of peers. The list of ten Labour peers, and crossbenchers cited below is not comprehensive. More will be added.

Conservative peers

Lord Ashcroft: Conservative funder. Until 2010, held investments in two private health-care groups.

Lord Ashton: Shares in insurance brokers Marsh Inc. and in Zurich Financial Services AG. A review by Marsh Inc. of the NHS Litigation Authority for the Department of Health recommended opening up clinical negligence cover to private insurers. Despite concerns from Zurich AG that they didn’t have the necessary expertise, the Department of Health accepted the large majority of their recommendations. Lord Ashton also has shares in a private dental company, Smilepod Hygiene Ltd.

Lord Ballyedmond: Chairman of pharmaceutical company Norbrook Laboratories.

Lord Bell: Chairman of Chime Communications group, whose companies include Bell Pottinger, (lobbying clients include Southern Cross, BT Health and AstraZeneca).

Lord Blackwell: Chairman of Interserve, consultancy to NHS and private health-care firms. Involved in PFI hospitals. Head of the Prime Minister's policy unit under John Major from 1995-97, previously a member of Margaret Thatcher's policy unit. Was a partner with McKinsey and Company (involved in NHS bill), between 1978 and 1994. Non-executive director of insurer Standard Life.

Quote: “We are now 10 years further on from that and it is important that the changes are not lost in the voices that will always oppose changes that are necessary to reform the way that the NHS works. I hope that, while listening to those voices, the Minister can assure us that these essential reforms will be carried through and that the period of uncertainty for the NHS will not be any longer than it needs to be before we can get to the kind of reformed NHS that we all want to see.”

Lord Blyth of Rowington: Senior adviser to Greenhill investment bankers. Former Boots Chemists deputy chairman.

Lord Boswell: Holds shares in pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline plc and Reckitt Benckiser (which produces drugs for the NHS amongst other health institutions). The NHS is currently suing Reckitt Benckiser for £90 million following an investigation that ruled the company had abused its dominant position in the heartburn market. The company paid a £10.2 million fine in 2010 following an Office of Fair Trading investigation of anti-competitive behaviour relating to their heartburn product Gaviscon.

Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone: Former Conservative Health Secretary Virginia Bottomley is a director of BUPA, the health insurance, private hospital and care group.

Quote: “I give this Bill an unequivocal and extraordinarily warm welcome.” “It is romantic poppycock to think that the Secretary of State should be personally involved ...”

Lord Brittan: Adviser to Teijin, a conglomerate of global companies with medical and pharmaceutical interests. Teijin Home Healthcare Limited supply products to the NHS and Teijin Pharma Ltd provides pharmaceuticals to the NHS.

Baroness Byford: Holds shares in GlaxoSmithKline and Reckitt Benckiser. Shares in Unilever plc (domestic products). Unilever’s European venture capital arm, Unilever Ventures, joined with Vectura to form a pharma company. Holds shares in Croda International plc whose health division has extensive links with the NHS.

Lord Carrington: Holds shares in GlaxoSmithKline and in Unilever plc.

Lord Chadlington: Chief executive of Huntsworth communications group with several lobbying firms. Huntsworth Health chaired a meeting on commissioning on behalf of Healthcare Communications Association, a group whose members consist of PR agencies and pharmaceutical companies. The company made a £15,500 donation to the Conservative party last August and has donated every year since 2008. Huntsworth, who had initially denied their donations, were forced to admit they had given money, following research of the electoral records. They stated that the money came from the purchase of tickets for “Conservative events” – a classic lobbying technique. Lord Chadlington is the Prime Minister’s constituency party chairman; Chadlington and his wife have given more than £20,000 to their local party since 2007, including £10,000 for Cameron’s leadership campaign. For more on Lord Chadlington please click here.

Lord Coe: In February 2011 became Director of AMT-Sybex Group, IT supplier to the NHS.

Baroness Cumberlege of Newick: Former Tory health minister, runs Cumberlege Connections, a political networking firm that works “extensively” with the pharmaceutical industry. Former non-executive director of PR firm for Healthcare Huntsworth plc (where Lord Chadlington is chief executive). Former executive director of healthcare consulting firm MJM Healthcare Solutions. Holds shares in Prudential (financial services).

Quote: “I applaud the flexibility of the Bill.”

Lord Dixon-Smith: Has shares in Vodafone group plc, which produced a report on driving efficiency in healthcare, promoting use of SMS texts. South-Central ambulance service NHS trust appointed Vodafone UK as its communications partner.

Baroness Eccles: Has shares in GlaxoSmithKline (Healthcare); GSK is the UK's leading supplier of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease medicines.

Quote: “My Lords, I am delighted to support this bill.” “I hope that this bill will initiate a sea change in the way that we approach the nation's health...”

Lord Edmiston: Shareholdings in Bupa Finance plc where Baroness Bottomley is a director. Bupa provides health insurance, private hospital and care group in direct competition with the NHS. Shares in Fidelity International Ltd, which acquired Telehealth Solutions Ltd in 2011. Telehealth has partners in the NHS and private health-care - and has several contracts with the NHS.  Telehealth is rapidly expanding and works to give people treatment from home, and is seen by Health Secretary Andrew Lansley as a way to save the NHS millions.

Lord Feldman of Elstree: Shares in BTG (pharmaceuticals and medical devices).

Lord Feldman: Shares in Inverness Medical, now Alere - a global health-care company which works with many PCTs, including on the “healthcheck programme”.

Lord Fink: Director of multiple companies including The Global PR Network Ltd (health and medical sector) in which he has shares. Chairman and director of Zenith Hygiene Group plc - an approved NHS supplier. Shares run independently by Lombard Odier: Abbott Laboratories Ltd (pharmaceuticals), Allianz SE, which offers medical insurance, Prudential plc, which offers private health insurance, Siemens AG, which supplies medical equipment to the NHS and the Vodafone group. (See Lord Dixon-Smith above)

Lord Forsyth of Drumlean: Board member, Centre for Policy Studies, who declares interests in “privatisation” and “healthcare” on his personal parliamentary page. Has shares in Evercore, a global investment banking company, who have made some of the most noteworthy healthcare transactions.

Lord Freeman: Ex-health minister and chairman of the advisory board of PricewaterhouseCoopers, which claims to have “been at the heart of shaping [health-care] reforms and working with clients to respond to the opportunities they present”. Non-executive director of Parity Group plc which has contract with NHS Direct to develop and support a new Health Information Search Portal. Lord Freeman became non-executive chairman in 2007.

Lord Garel-Jones: Managing Director of UBS bank, whose health-care division has earned the firm over $1billion since 2005.

Lord Glendonbrook: Has shares in Ansell Ltd NPV (healthcare); in Abbott Laboratories, which supplies NHS with laboratory equipment and reagents; in Astrazeneca biopharmaceuticals (the NHS is the primary customer for Astrazeneca medicines in the UK); in GlaxoSmithKline Ord 25p (health-care) and GlaxoSmithKline (healthcare); in Johnson & Johnson, which supplies the NHS with multiple products including skin care products and hip replacements; in Novartis, a firm which threatened to pull out of the UK because of NHS safety trial rules; in Novo Nordisk (pharmaceuticals), Pfizer Inc (pharmaceuticals) and Serco group – all three suppliers to the NHS; in Siemens AG, which supplies medical equipment to the NHS; and in Smith & Nephew, hip-replacement and bandaging group.

Viscount Goschen: on payroll of Korn/Ferry International - an international executive search firm which runs health-care services and secures and develops a diverse range of health-care organisations and delivery service providers, dealing with hospital systems, multi-specialty physician practices, pharmacy benefit management, and long-term care/assisted-living. In 1993 when Virginia (now Baroness) Bottomley was health secretary, Korn Ferry received £30,000 from Oxford Regional Health Authority to find a new £80,000-a-year chief executive; £60,000 from the Oxford District Health Authority for finding a new chief executive and director of finance; and £30,000 from the Oxford Family Health Services Authority for a replacement chief executive. For one of the posts, the company did little more than place an advert in newspapers and draw up a short list.

Lord Griffiths of Fforestfach: Director of Goldman Sachs, which invests extensively in the healthcare sector.

Lord Hamilton of Epsom: a director with MSB Ltd (managing consultancy) which lists the NHS, Bupa and Care UK as clients. Care UK chairman John Nash funded Andrew Lansley's office.

Quotes: “My Lords, surely one of the problems of the National Health Service is the wall of money that was thrown at a totally unreformed NHS by the last Government? Do we not need management consultants now to show us the way forward on the savings that need to be wrung out of the NHS so that it can survive into the future?” ( HL Deb, 13 February 2012, c556)

Earl Howe responded for the government– “Yes, we do, my Lords. Part of the benefit of the modernisation programme will be to streamline the architecture of the NHS.”

Lord Hayhoe: shares in Abbott Laboratories Ltd (pharmaceuticals, and medical products), an NHS supplier.

Lord Higgins: Holds in excess of £50,000 of shares in Lansdowne UK Equity Fund, backers of private hospital group Circle Holdings.

Lord Hill: Shares in Huntsworth plc (see Lord Chadlington above).

Baroness Hooper: Until July 11, chairman of Advisory Committee of Barclays Infrastructure Funds, one of the most experienced investors in hospital PFI deals.

Lord Howard of Lympne: Senior adviser to Hawkpoint Partners, a corporate finance firm that provides staff to NHS and Private Healthcare providers. Lord Howard replaced Douglas Hurd in early 2011, thus keeping the connection of influence in Parliament.

Lord Hunt of Wirral: Partner in Beachcroft, a law firm that analyses the full range of government, parliamentary and regulatory matters in the health sector.

Baroness James: shares in AstraZeneca (pharmaceuticals) which supplies medicines to the NHS; in GlaxoSmithKline plc (healthcare); in Reckitt Benckiser Group plc, which produces drugs for the NHS amongst other health institutions (the NHS is currently suing Reckitt Benckiser, see Lord Boswell above);  in Serco Group (business services), which has multiple contracts with NHS including PFI hospitals; in Smith and Nephew (healthcare) which supplies hip replacement and bandaging to the NHS; and in Vodafone.

Lord Lang of Monkton: Director of Marsh & McLennan Companies that “help hospitals, insurers, pharmaceutical companies and industry associations understand the implications of changing policy environments”.

Lord Lawson: Chairman of Oxford Investment Partners whose investment management team “has more than 50 years of investment experience with a dedicated focus on communications, healthcare and sustainability.”

Lord Lloyd-Webber: holds shares in Catlin Group Limited, which specialises in health-care professional liability insurance and offers extensive knowledge of medical, health-care and pharmaceutical markets; in Smiths Group plc, which produces medical equipment; in AstraZeneca (pharmaceuticals); in Gilead Sciences, a research-based pharmaceutical company which supplies the NHS; in GlaxoSmithKline (pharmaceuticals), and Johnson & Johnson (pharmaceuticals), which both supply to the NHS; in Standard Life, suppliers of private medical insurance plans to both corporate and individual customers; shares in Raffles medical group which operates a network of 74 multi-disciplinary clinics across Singapore; and finally shares in Stryker Corporation orthopaedic market which is one of the world’s largest medical device companies.

Lord Macfarlane: Has shares in Prudential plc, and Aviva plc, which both offer private health care; in Smith & Nephew (Pharmaceuticals) hip-replacement and bandaging group. Has voted in 6.25 per cent of votes in the Lords, well below average, but managed to vote on the Health and Social Care bill.

Lord Magan of Castletown: Director of the SISK Group of healthcare companies. Member of the advisory board on Axa Private Equity, which invests heavily in healthcare.

Lord Maples: Shares in Berkshire Hathaway Inc, the company run by Warren Buffet which invests heavily in private healthcare stock.

Lord Marland: Shares in Tristel Ltd plc - a leading provider of infection control products into the NHS. Shares in Jardine Lloyd Thompson plc. The website states “the placing and serving of healthcare insurance ... is a specialist field in which we excel”; its insurance covers hospitals, physician cover, clinics, long-term care, allied health professionals and more.

Lord McColl: Was paid a fee as a consultant to a new private healthcare company Endeavour Health, a rival to the National Health Service’s family doctor service. Endeavour Health, which was set up last year by two hedge fund advisers, Briton Yadin Shemmer and American Jonathan Weiss, to compete with the NHS. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8209292.stm. The company claims to be Britain’s first comprehensive GP network, offering access to the best doctors and the opportunity to beat NHS queues and appointments at any time that people want.

Lord Moore: Shares in NHS suppliers Johnson & Johnson, pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co inc; in Novartis AG; in BT Group, one of the largest suppliers of communications to the NHS (BT was involved in the failed NHS computer system overhaul); and in Vodafone (see Lord-Dixon profile). Lord Moore has voted in only 14.53% of votes, a below average record, but managed to vote on all divisions on the Health and Social Care bill.

Lord Naseby: until October 2011, was chairman of and a share-holder in Invesco Perpetual Recovery Trust which voluntarily wound down on October 27th 2011.  One fifth of their investments were in pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

Quote: “I want to make it clear that I support the Bill. More importantly, I support the need for the Bill.” […] “Finally, competition is good for any industry...Competition gives people pride and responsibility.”

Baron Newton of Braintree: Advisor to Oasis Healthcare on dentistry and general healthcare matters.

Baroness Noakes: Shares in BT Group, (see Lord Moore); in pharmaceutical giants Astrazenecaand GlaxoSmithKline; in Vodafone Group plc (see Lord Dixon-Smith above).

Quote: “I hope that other noble Lords will not encourage the Government to keep any limits which constrain the NHS from maximising its assets for the purposes of the NHS.”

Lord Patten: Senior advisor for Charterhouse Development Capital Ltd - who purchased Tunstall for £510 million in 2008. Tunstall is a Telecare provider (which allows people to be monitored remotely) and its Gil Baldwin Chief Executive of Tunstall is a supporter of Andrew Lansley's bill. Following the takeover in 2008, Tunstall was awarded a three-year contract for services to NHS North Yorkshire and North and has also been given a framework agreement to provide telecare, telehealth and telecoaching to NHS services, which forms part of Andrew Lansley's vision for developing telecare across the UK. The framework agreement began on 16 August 2010.

Lord Patten of Barnes: Adviser to private equity firm Bridgepoint.

Lord Popat: Founder of TLC group Ltd who run private care homes. Lord Popat gave David Cameron £25,000 one week after the Conservatives unveiled their health 'reforms'. David Cameron made businessman a peer shortly after getting into ten Downing Street.

Lord Ribeiro: Adviser on hospital reorganisation for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), a company that is heavily involved in consultancy services to the NHS.

Lord Saatchi: A share-holding partner  in M&C Saatchi plc - a marketing company involved in multiple campaign projects for the government, including the Change4Life project aimed at promoting healthier living to tackle obesity. M&C Saatchi has also worked for PPP Healthcare, AXA ( insurance) and multiple pharmaceutical clients, including Astrazeneca, Pfizer and Merck. The website says: “We transform raw data about life-changing brands into real meaning for healthcare professionals.” Has voted in 15.33 per cent of votes in the House - well below average, but managed to vote on key parts of the Health and Social Care Bill.

Earl of Selborne: Shares in Prudential,  private health insurance provider.

Lord Sheikh: Chairman and director of Macmillan Sheikh plc which is involved in private health insurance.

Lord Sheppard: Has shares in Diageo, a drinks company which has been awarded money to educate midwives in England and Wales about the dangers of alcohol. (No, you can’t make it up). Andrew Lansley was a former director at Profero who had Diageo as one of their clients.

Lord Swinfen: Unpaid director of Swinfen Charitable Trust, partner of American Telemedicine Association for global crisis work using telehealth technology; Lord Swinfen is also an unpaid director of The American Telemedicine Association, which has multiple members who supply the NHS and private health care. The members according to the website: “Play a special role in shaping the future of the telemedicine industry.” The American Telemedicine Association has written a new legislative proposal to the American congress to expand the use of telemedicine. Telecare is expanding throughout the NHS as a way of treating people from home.

Lord Tugendhat: Has shares in MetLife, a leading American insurance and financial services company, which also operates in the UK offering accident protection for clinical health care workers, to cover specified infectious illnesses contracted at work for those in the UK health care industry and health insurance generally. He supported much of the bill, but spoke out against the top-down re-organisation. Declared his interest as chairman of the Imperial College Healthcare Trust, but not of his shareholdings in MetLife. Lord Tugendhat is also a member of Trilantic Capital partners, a private equity firm “active” in healthcare.

Quote: “The Government's mistake was to introduce a Bill that sought to impose a massive programme of management and structural change on top of an ambitious cost-cutting programme.”

Lord Wade: Unpaid director of RisingStars Growth Fund Ltd - an early-stage venture capital company that invests in health-care among other sectors, including multiple healthcare companies that supply the NHS.

Lord Wakeham: Adviser to L.E.K. Consulting,  a global consulting firm that helps private healthcare companies identify “growth and new business development” and “facilitating government healthcare policy outcomes”.

Lord Waldegrave: Adviser to UBS Investment Bank, whose healthcare division has earned the firm over $1billion since 2005. He has a poor voting record in the House - 7.88 per cent of votes in his time there - but he managed to vote on the Health and Social Care Bill. Director of Biotech Growth Trust plc - which is managed by Orbimed, the world's largest healthcare-dedicated investment firm, with approximately $5 billion in assets under management.

Lord Wasserman: Shares in Diageo plc (see Lord Sheppard above); in Johnson & Johnson Inc and Procter & Gamble Co, both of whom supply the NHS with pharmaceuticals among other medical products; in American pharmaceutical firm, Walgreen Company. (For more on Walgreens, click here). The Health and Social Care bill will give pharmaceuticals an even wider range of healthcare providers to build relationships with.

Baroness Wheatcroft: Business consultant to DLA Piper, a global law firm providing lobbying services to “clients in the health and social care sectors”. DLA Piper advised ministers on the failed £12 billion IT project for the NHS.  She is also a member of the Advisory Board for Pelham Bell Pottinger, whose lobbying clients include Southern Cross, BT Health and AstraZeneca. For more on Pottinger see Lord Pottinger above.

Lord Wolfson: Shares in Cable & Wireless plc whose “solutions” for the health sector are “intended to meet all the communications requirements of the health service, from the largest Trusts to the smallest GP surgeries. Some offer special features, and the service levels are available exclusively to NHS customers”. The services have already been selected through the NHS procurement procedure.

Liberal Democrat peers

Lord Alliance: Has shares in Huntsworth plc - a company whose CEO is Lord Chadlington. Heavily involved in lobbying and PR.

Lord Clement-Jones: Partner in DLA Piper, a global law firm providing lobbying services to “clients in the health and social care sectors”. DLA Piper counts Southern Cross amongst its clients. Chairman of the council of the School of Pharmacy, University of London. Lord Clement-Jones nominated Lord Hameed, who sits on the board of Alpha hospitals, part of the Alpha Healthcare group which has made significant donations to the Liberal Democrat party. In 2008, Lord Clement-Jones was the party treasurer. The Times exposed Lord Clement-Jones as the man who nominated Lord Hameed, after the peer had originally said he had “no idea” who had. 

Quote on 13 March 2012: “Today's news about the change in attitude of the Royal College of General Practitioners shows that we have reached a genuine watershed. It may not have changed its mind absolutely, although it appears that membership pressure is being applied to the leadership of the royal college, but this is a real watershed whereby the acceptance of the fact that the Bill is going through is changing hearts and minds-not just minds but hearts as well.”

Lord Lee: Shares in pharmaceutical giant United Drug plc which had a joint venture with Medco Health Solutions, providing home-based pharmacy to NHS patients.

Lord Lester: Has shares in Investor AB – a company that invests in healthcare companies. One company is Gambro, a global medical technology company, which sells its products to the NHS.

Lord Rennard: Director of the British Healthcare Trades Association (BHTA) whose purpose is to ensure that the market for healthcare and assistive technologies is competitive, profitable and well-regulated. The BHTA works in partnership with industry, government, and other stakeholders.  Also set up a communications company with his wife, called Rennard & McTegart Ltd. The company provides public affairs advice to the BHTA, as well as management, campaign, communications and fund raising consultancy.

Lord Sharman: Is director of and has shares in Aviva plc who offer health insurance. Mr Dr Doug Wright, principal clinical consultant at Aviva Health UK, said: “I think we could start to see waiting lists increase again, especially for some of the elective procedures that are within the traditional medical insurance territory.”

Lord Steel: Non-executive Director of General Mediterranean Holding SA - with activities in, amongst other sectors, Trading & Pharmaceuticals. The Trading & Pharmaceuticals section is split into two companies of interest. Meditech UK Ltd has software currently installed at ten medical facilities in the UK including the NHS. Meditech is the leading supplier of healthcare information systems in North America. The other company is Crescent Pharma Ltd, which directly and indirectly supplies a wide range of major distributors and customers within the UK, including the NHS.

Lord Taverne: Chairman of private health insurer Axa Sun Life’s monitoring board. Has shares in Unilever, GlaxoSmithKline, and Legal and General, which provides healthcare insurance.

Lord Vallance: Member of the International Advisory Board for Allianz SE, which offers medical insurance. Also on the Supervisory Board for Siemens AG, which supplies medical equipment to the NHS.

Lord Watson: Chairman of Havas Media UK – whose subsidiary MPG Media Contacts in April 2011 won the integrated media planning and buying account for Circle Health, the healthcare partnership that runs and builds hospitals. The account is worth just under £1 million, according to MPG Media Contacts, and the scope of the work covers offline and online channels in the UK. Circle, which became the first private UK firm to run an NHS hospital last year when it won the tender to run Hinchingbrooke Hospital, plans to build a network of 30 hospitals across the UK in the coming years.

Labour peers

Lord Carter: Head of the increasingly influential Competition and Cooperation Panel, is an adviser to Warburg Pincus International Ltd, a private equity firm with significant investments in the healthcare industry. Founder of Westminster Health Care, a leading private nursing home company; chair of McKesson Information Solutions Ltd, which delivers IT to “virtually every NHS organisation”; chair of Primary Group Ltd, a Bermudan based private equity company; and a substantial shareholder in, among other companies, B-Plan Information Systems Ltd, which has benefited from the increased need for large scale IT systems that the introduction of an internal market to the NHS demands.  Warburg Pincus rescued United Healthcare from financial ruin in 1987 and helped it to become one of the largest healthcare companies in the world. http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=3934

Lord Darzi: Former surgeon drafted into government as a health minister by Gordon Brown when he was PM. Now an adviser to medical technology firm GE Healthcare.

Quote: “I would find it difficult at this stage to vote for blocking the Bill ... I am speaking as a surgeon, not a politician”.

Lord Evans of Watford: Director of healthcare property firm Care Capital.

Lord Filkin: Adviser to outsourcing giant Serco, heavily involved in NHS services.

Lord Harris of Haringey: Senior adviser to business services giant KPMG. Wyeth Pharmaceuticals 2001.

Lord Hutton of Furness: Ex-health minister is an adviser to law firm Eversheds. Clients include care homes and private hospitals.

Lord Leitch: - Bupa chairman.

Baroness Morgan of Huyton: Ex-director of failed care home firm Southern Cross.

Lord Puttnam: Former director of Huntsworth Communications, the gobal public relations and integrated healthcare communications group. Did not stand for the board this year (2012). See Lord Chadlington for more details on Huntsworth here.

Lord Warner: Former minister and now adviser to Apax Partners, one of the leading global investors in the healthcare sector; director of Sage Advice Ltd; adviser to Xansa, a technology firm, and Byotrol, an antimicrobial company, which both sell services and products to the NHS. He was “paid by DLA Piper, which advised ministers on the £12 billion IT project for the NHS” – a project that he was responsible for when he was a government minister.

Crossbenchers

Lord Adebowale: Non-executive director and shareholder in St Vincent's healthcare consulting company whose partners include BT Health, IOCOM and AXSys.

Lord Currie of Marylebone: Chairman of Semperian, an investment vehicle, which owns a portfolio of mature Public Private Partnership investments, including hospitals.

Lord Hameed: Chair of private secure mental health hospital group Alpha Hospitals, which is investing in a new acute private hospital in central London - part of the Alpha Healthcare  group which has made significant donations to the Liberal Democrat party. In 2008, Lord Clement-Jones, the party treasurer, nominated Lord Hameed for his peerage.

Baroness Hogg of Kettlethorpe: Chair of Frontier Economics, a consultancy that advises on the private sector impact of healthcare reforms and how “to shape regulatory environments”.

Lord Sutherland: Non-executive chairman of Scottish Care which now represents the largest group of independent health and social care providers across Scotland, delivering residential care, day care, care at home, and housing support.