Oliver Eden, 8th Baron Henley

The Right Honourable The Lord Henley PC
Lord-in-Waiting (Government Whip)
Incumbent
Assumed office 21 November 2016
Prime Minister	Theresa May
Minister of State for Crime Prevention and Antisocial Behaviour Reduction
In office 16 September 2011 – 4 September 2012
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	The Baroness Browning
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Undersecretary of State for the Environment
In office 11 May 2010 – 16 September 2011
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	???
Succeeded by	Lord Taylor of Holbeach
Opposition Chief Whip of the House of Lords
In office 3 December 1998 – 18 September 2001
Leader	William Hague
Preceded by	The Lord Strathclyde
Succeeded by	The Lord Cope of Berkeley
Member of the House of Lords
Incumbent
Assumed office 11 November 1999 as an excepted hereditary peer
In office 20 December 1977 – 11 November 1999 as a hereditary peer
Preceded by	Michael Eden, 7th Baron Henley
Personal details
Born	22 November 1953
Political party	Conservative
Alma mater	Collingwood College, Durham

Oliver Michael Robert Eden, 8th Baron Henley and 6th Baron Northington PC (born 22 November 1953) is a British hereditary peer and politician, who is a Conservative member of the House of Lords. He served as a Minister of State at the Home Office with responsibility for Crime Prevention and Anti-Social Behaviour Reduction, a role in which he succeeded Lady Browning in September 2011 to September 2012.^[1]

Early life

Lord Henley is the eldest son and fourth child of Michael, the seventh Baron, and Nancy Mary Walton. He was educated at Clifton College. He graduated from Collingwood College, Durham University with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1975. He was called to the Bar by the Middle Temple in 1977.

Political career

By right as an heredity peer

Lord Henley succeeded to the peerage in 1977 upon the death of his father. An Irish peer, he is able to sit in the House of Lords by virtue of a United Kingdom peerage granted to the 3rd Baron Henley, namely Baron Northington. He was an elected County Councillor for Cumbria from 1986 to 1989. He was also at that time President of the Cumbria Association of Local Councils.

He served as a House of Lords whip under Margaret Thatcher from 1989 to July 1990. He then moved to become a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Social Security, retaining the position when John Major rose to power and serving until 1993. He was then briefly moved to the Department of Employment, when in 1994 he was again fleetingly moved to the Ministry of Defence. In 1995 he was promoted to Minister of State at the Department for Education and Employment, serving until the Conservative government lost the 1997 general election.

By election from among heredity peers

With the passage of the House of Lords Act 1999, Lord Henley along with almost all other hereditary peers lost his automatic right to sit in the House of Lords. He was however elected as one of the 92 hereditary peers to remain in the House of Lords pending completion of House of Lords reform. He first served as opposition spokesman for Home Affairs before becoming Opposition Chief Whip in the Lords from 1998 to 2001 and as Opposition spokesman for Justice from 2003 to 2010.

After the 6 May 2010 general election, Lord Henley was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in the Cameron Ministry. He was promoted to Minister of State at the Home Office on 16 September 2011, with special responsibility for crime prevention and anti-social behaviour reduction, replacing Baroness Browning who stepped down for health reasons.^[2] He was a member of the Joint Committee on Human Rights until November 2016. On 21 November 2016, it had been announced that he had been appointed a Lord in Waiting, one of the government whips in the House of Lords.^[3]

He was appointed to the Privy Council (PC) in 2013.

Titles and styles

• Oliver Eden (1953–1962)
• The Hon. Oliver Eden (1962–1977)
• The Rt. Hon. The Lord Henley (1977–2013)
• The Rt. Hon. The Lord Henley PC (2013–)

References

1. Home Office Announcement appointment of Lord Henley
2. Number10.gov.uk - New appointments to the House of Lords made by the Queen
3. "New ministerial appointment: Lord Henley". gov.uk. Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street and Office of the Leader of the House of Lords. 21 November 2016. Retrieved 27 November 2016.

• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages – Peerages beginning with "H" (part 3)
• Ministerial posts
• Biography