Norman Reginald Warner, Baron Warner, (born 8 September 1940), is a British former

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

and member of 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 ...

. A career civil servant from 1960, he was created a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

in 1998. He was Parliamentary Under-Secretary in the

Department of Health A health department or health ministry is a part of government which focuses on issues related to the general health of the citizenry. Subnational entities, such as states, counties and cities, often also operate a health department of their o ...

from 2003 to 2007, and

Minister of State Minister of state is a designation for a government minister, with varying meanings in different jurisdictions. In a number of European countries, the title is given as an honorific conferring a higher rank, often bestowed upon senior minister ...

at the Department of Health from 2005 to 2007. He has also been an adviser to a number of consulting companies. In October 2015, Warner resigned the Labour whip and became a non-affiliated and then

crossbench A crossbencher is a minor party or independent politician, independent member of some legislatures, such as the Parliament of Australia. In the British House of Lords the term refers to members of the parliamentary group of non-political peers. ...

member of the House of Lords, serving until his retirement in 2024.

Early life and education

Warner was born on 8 September 1940. He was educated at

Dulwich College Dulwich College is a 2-18 private, day and boarding school for boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a public school, it began as the College of God's Gift, founded in 1619 by Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn, with the original purpose of ...

, an all-boys public school in

Dulwich Dulwich (; ) is an area in south London, England. The settlement is mostly in the London Borough of Southwark, with parts in the London Borough of Lambeth, and consists of Dulwich Village, East Dulwich, West Dulwich, and the Southwark half of H ...

, London. He graduated from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

with a

Master of Public Health The Master of Public Health (MPH), Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH), Master of Medical Science in Public Health (MMSPH) and the Doctor of Public Health (DrPH), International Masters for Health Leadership (IMHL) are interdisciplinary profes ...

degree. From 1983 to 1984 he was the Gwilym Gibbon Fellow at

Nuffield College, Oxford Nuffield College () is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is a graduate college specialising in the social sciences, particularly economics, politics and sociology. N ...

Career

Following a career in the civil service in a variety of roles from 1960, Warner was Director of

Social Services Social services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, which commonly include the disadvantaged. Also available amachine-converted HTML They may be provided by individuals, private and i ...

for

Kent County Council Kent County Council is a county council that governs the non-metropolitan county of Kent in England. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the ceremonial county, which additionally includes the Unitary authorities of England, unitary auth ...

between 1985 and 1991, and chair of the City and East London Family Services Authority 1991 to 1994. He chaired the National Inquiry into Selection, Development and Management of Staff in Children's Homes in 1992. In 2010 Lord Warner declared he was a strategic advisor to

PA Consulting Group PA Consulting Group (formerly Personnel Administration) is a professional services firm that works with public, private and third-sector organisations. It was founded in 1943 by Ernest E. Butten, Tom H. Kirkham and Dr David Seymour, who used a ...

, for "strategic advice relating to Middle East activities only". In 2008 he told the House of Commons

Public Administration Select Committee The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Select Committee (PACAC), formerly known as the Public Administration Select Committee, is a committee appointed by the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. Its primary role is to scrutinize ...

that he had "a contract with a particular part of

DLA Piper DLA Piper is a law firm with offices in over 40 countries across the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. It was founded in 2005 through the merger between three law firms: San Diego–based ''Gray Cary Ware & Freiden ...

concerned with infrastructure and public services and that requires me to give advice in those areas, including a bit of health regulation." In 2009 he said he was "a paid adviser to the

General Healthcare Group General Healthcare Group PLC (GHG) is a British healthcare company. It owns BMI Healthcare. BMI operates 54 hospitals and clinics in the United Kingdom. History The name "General Healthcare Group" dates to 1993, when AMI, a US for-profit hosp ...

" as well as "the chairman of NHS London Development Agency".

Political career

He was created a

Life Peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

on 29 July 1998, taking the title Baron Warner, of Brockley in the London Borough of Lewisham. From 1997 to 1998 he was Senior Policy Adviser to

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, more commonly known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom and the head of the Home Office. The position is a Great Office of State, maki ...

Jack Straw John Whitaker Straw (born 3 August 1946) is a British politician who served in the Cabinet from 1997 to 2010 under the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He held two of the traditional Great Offices of State, as Home Secretar ...

, and remained an adviser to Government on family policy after being appointed to the House of Lords. Warner was Parliamentary under-secretary of state in the

from 2003 to 2005, and a

at the

from 2005 to 2007.parliament.uk
Lord Warner
Retrieved 23 April 2013 He was appointed to the Privy Council in June 2006, and was sworn in on 19 July 2006. In August 2010, Warner was appointed by the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government as a commissioner on the Commission on Funding of Care and Support, which was chaired by

Andrew Dilnot Sir Andrew William Dilnot, (born 19 June 1960) is a British economist and broadcaster. He was director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies from 1991 to 2002, and principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford from 2002 to 2012, and Warden of Nuffield ...

. The commission was asked by the government to review the way in which social care is paid for in England. It recommended that people's lifetime costs should be capped, with the government paying any further costs above the level of the cap. In June 2014, Warner was appointed as a commissioner to oversee improvements in

Birmingham City Council Birmingham City Council is the local authority for the city of Birmingham in the West Midlands, England. Birmingham has had an elected local authority since 1838, which has been reformed several times. Since 1974 the council has been a metropo ...

's Children's Social Care services, following a poor review by Professor

Julian Le Grand Sir Julian Ernest Michael Le Grand, FBA FRSA (born 29 May 1945) is a British academic specialising in public policy. He is the Richard Titmuss Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics (LSE) and was a senior policy advisor to ...

. In October 2015, Warner resigned the Labour whip in the House of Lords and became a non-affiliated member. In a letter to the Labour leader,

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who has been Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington North (UK Parliament constituency), Islington North since 1983. Now an Independent ...

, he wrote that Labour was no longer "a credible party of government-in-waiting... Labour will only win another election with a policy approach that wins back people who have moved to voting Conservative and Ukip, as well as to Greens and SNP. Your approach is unlikely to achieve this shift." Warner retired from the House of Lords on 1 August 2024.

NHS controversy

In April 2013, Lord Warner announced he would vote with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in a key vote in the House of Lords on proposed NHS regulations that Labour claimed would enable companies to bid for almost all health services. He was the only Labour peer to do so. In March 2014, Warner wrote an article for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' newspaper suggesting that NHS users should pay £10 a month and £20 for every night in hospital. Labour swiftly rejected these ideas. Shadow Health Minister, Jamie Reed, commented: "This is not something Labour would ever consider. We believe in an NHS free at the point of use, and a Labour government will repeal David Cameron's NHS changes that put private profit before patient care." Lord Warner is a director of Sage Advice Ltd, and an adviser to Xansa (a technology firm) and Byotrol (an antimicrobial company) – all of which sell or are hoping to sell services or products to the NHS, according to website ''Social Investigations''. He also took up a position with

Apax Partners Apax Partners LLP is a British private equity firm, headquartered in London, England. The company also operates out of six other offices in New York, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Tel Aviv, Munich and Shanghai. As of March 2024, the firm had raised and adv ...

– one of the leading private equity investors in healthcare, according to the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency.

Other interests

He has also held the Chair of the

Youth Justice Board The Youth Justice Board for England and Wales (YJB) () is a non-departmental public body created by the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 to oversee the youth justice system for England and Wales. Its purposes are set out in section 41 of that Act. It ...

National Council for Voluntary Organisations The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) is the umbrella body for the voluntary and community sector in England. It is a registered charity (no. 225922). It works to support the voluntary and community sector and to create an en ...

and the London Region Sports Board. In 2010, Warner was elected chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group, becoming Vice Chair in 2015. He is a member of the Advisory Council of

Reform Reform refers to the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The modern usage of the word emerged in the late 18th century and is believed to have originated from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement, which ...

. He is an Honorary Associate of the

National Secular Society The National Secular Society (NSS) is a British campaigning organisation that promotes secularism and the separation of church and state. It holds that no one should gain advantage or disadvantage because of their religion or lack of it. The Soc ...

National Secular Society. Retrieved 27 July 2019

References

External links

Norman Warner: will a new Beveridge emerge?
1 March 2012. Essay from ''The next ten years'' published by

.
Why I, a Labour peer, am supporting a regulated market for NHS competition
Norman Warner, ''

'', 23 April 2013. {{DEFAULTSORT:Warner, Norman Warner, Baron 1940 births Labour Party (UK) life peers Living people Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Crossbench life peers British civil servants People educated at Dulwich College Fellows of Nuffield College, Oxford UC Berkeley School of Public Health alumni Life peers created by Elizabeth II Peers retired under the House of Lords Reform Act 2014 British humanists British political consultants