Lord Callanan
Biography
Lord Callanan was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on 14 February 2020.
He was Minister of State at the Department for Exiting the European Union from 27 October 2017 to 31 January 2020.
Education
He was educated at Newcastle Polytechnic where he gained a Bachelor of Science degree (BSc) in electrical and electronic engineering.
Political career
Callanan was a Conservative Councillor on Tyne and Wear County Council between 1983 and 1986 and Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council between 1987 and 1996.
He was a Member of the European Parliament for the North East England constituency from 1999, re-elected in 2004 and 2009.
He became the leader of the European Conservatives and Reformists group from 2011-2014.
Callanan was created a Life Peer on 24 September 2014 taking the title Baron Callanan, of Low Fell in the County of Tyne and Wear.
He was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department for Transport between June and October 2017.
Career outside politics
He worked as a project engineer at Scottish and Newcastle breweries from 1986 to 1998.
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Business, Energy and Corporate Responsibility)
Responsibilities include:
- corporate governance and responsibility
- audit, including Financial Reporting Council
- insolvency
- company law, including Companies House
- Land Registry
- Ordnance Survey
- better regulation
- green finance, joint with HMT
- smart meters and smart systems
- energy efficiency
- fuel poverty
- clean heat
- Help to Grow: digital
- investment security
- intellectual property
- space strategy
- life sciences
- advanced manufacturing
- professional and business services
- Net Zero Industry Champion
- construction
- chemicals
- rail
- defence
- supply chains
- Made Smarter
Previous roles in government
Announcements
Subscriptions
- New funding to boost UK business exports abroad through the recognition of professional qualifications
- Further taxpayer savings with green upgrades for public buildings
- New register to crack down on dirty money and corrupt elites in UK goes live
- Give your home an energy MOT with new online advice service
- £54m heat network funding helps households ditch fossil fuels
- £400 energy bills discount to support households this winter
- More than a million businesses now eligible for Help to Grow as software scheme receives a boost
- Flying taxis and vaccine carrying drones: £12 million fund opens for regulators to drive innovation across the UK
- Audit regime overhaul to help restore trust in big business
- Ditching costly gas and oil is cheaper thanks to heat pump scheme