Nicholas Francis Markham, Baron Markham, is a member of the UK's upper house of parliament, The House of Lords. He was formerly a government

junior minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry (government department), ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is desi ...

npaidat the UK's Department of Health and Social Care. Markham was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(CBE) in the

2022 Birthday Honours The 2022 Queen's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to Orders and decorations of the Commonwealth realms, various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those ...

for services to the economy and government.

COVID-19

At the beginning of the pandemic, he set up a charity, Project Little Boat, to deliver PPE and other essential equipment, with Denis Kinane. Markham then co-founded Cignpost Diagnostics with Denis Kinane and Steve Whatley and is the Commercial Lead responsible for building the business. Cignpost has worked with elite sports, film production, travel and banking sectors to ensure they have a safe

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

-free working environment and under the consumer brand ExpressTest, to help the public travel safely. Markham's position in Cignpost led to questions about a possible conflict of interest as from early 2023 Markham was a health minister. Markham does not mention Cignpost in his biography for the Department for Health website.

Career

Markham was chairman of London & Continental Railways. Previously he was the lead non-executive director for the Ministry of Housing,

Communities and Local Government The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for housing, communities, and local government in England. It was established in May 2006 ...

since January 2013, where he also chaired the Audit and Risk Committee. He was strategy director at ITV where he led the merger integration of

Carlton Television Carlton Television (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV franchise holder for London and the surrounding counties from 9.25am every Monday to 5.15pm every Friday. The company is now managed with London Weekend Tele ...

(now

ITV London ITV London is the on-air brand name used by ''ITV Broadcasting Limited'' for two broadcast franchises of ITV, Carlton Television (weekdays) and London Weekend Television (weekends) in the London ITV region. Its terrestrial digital signal is ...

) and

Granada Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...

and developed the concept of

Freeview Freeview may refer to: *Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia *Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), a ...

alongside the BBC. From 1990 to 1998, Markham was a councillor and deputy leader of

Westminster City Council Westminster City Council is the local authority for the City of Westminster in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in London. The council has been under Labour majority control since 2022. Full council meetings ...

. From 2014 Markham chaired Inview Technology Ltd which went into administration in March 2020 with the loss to investors of over £20 million. He was CFO for

Laura Ashley Laura Ashley (née Mountney; 7 September 1925 – 17 September 1985) was a Welsh fashion designer and businesswoman. She originally made furnishing materials in the 1950s, expanding the business into clothing design and manufacture in the 1960s ...

where he led the financial restructuring of the business. He was chief executive of Top Up TV, which supplied a range of linear pay TV channels on DTT including

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

1, 2 and

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

and which provides conditional-access modules (CAMs) and technical services to

BT Vision EE TV (formerly BT Vision and then BT TV until 2023) is a subscription IPTV service offered by EE; a brand of British telecommunications company BT Group. It requires the signing up to and use of the EE Broadband internet and phone service, w ...

. According to the Government website Gov.uk ''Top Up TV was the first successful pay TV operator on digital terrestrial television in the world''. On 22 September 2022, he was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the

Department of Health and Social Care The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for government policy on health and adult social care matters in England, along with a few elements of the s ...

. On 7 October 2022, to facilitate his ministerial role, he was created Baron Markham, ''of East Horsley in the County of Surrey'', and was introduced to the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

on 10 October 2022. He sits as a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

peer. His was the first life peerage created during

Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...

's reign.

Personal life

Markham lives in

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

with wife Dr Ingrid Batista and their son Xavi. He also has two older children Ben and Sam.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Markham, Nick 1968 births Living people British business executives Railway executives People from Haywards Heath Alumni of the London School of Economics British businesspeople Councillors in the City of Westminster Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Conservative Party (UK) life peers Life peers created by Charles III