The Rt Hon. the Lord West of Spithead GCB DSC
Labour
Member of the House of Lords
M
Lord West of Spithead's full title is The Rt Hon. the Lord West of Spithead GCB DSC. His name is Alan William John West, and he is a current member of the House of Lords.
Allowance claims · 2026
Data not yet released for 2026 — the Lords Finance Office publishes monthly CSVs ~6-8 weeks after month-end.
Lords votes · 2026
176 divisions
1 Content(0.6%)
20 Not-Content(11.4%)
155 didn't vote(88.1%)
2026-07-21
Not-Content
173–234
Not-Content
2026-07-13
Not-Content
158–239
Not-Content
2026-03-12
Not-Content
26–134
Not-Content
2026-01-12
Content
201–169
Content
Source: lordsvotes-api.parliament.uk. "Result" shows the headline
Content vs Not-Content tally (including tellers). The Lords doesn't
publish a "didn't vote" attendance roll like the Commons, so the
figure above conflates absence with abstention.
Recent Hansard contributions · latest 25
2026-07-21
Bycatch Risk Prioritisation Framework
My Lords, does my noble friend the Minister agree that we need more patrolling and monitoring of our inshore waters and exclusive economic zone, and that perhaps it would be a good idea to actually have some more ships and a slightly larger Navy?
2026-07-20
Strait of Hormuz: Merchant Shipping
My Lords, we cannot allow the highly damaging closure of the Strait of Hormuz to continue indefinitely. We have two bases in the Middle East, HMS “Jufair” in Bahrain and Duqm in Oman. They were established to support our ships that were there to help the
2026-07-20
Strait of Hormuz: Merchant Shipping
To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to assist in opening the Strait of Hormuz to merchant traffic; and what advice is being given by the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) Centre to UK merchant shipping.
2026-07-20
EU Security Action for Europe Programme
My Lords, can my noble friend the Minister confirm that discussions are still going on with Germany about its involvement in the global combat aircraft work?
2026-07-15
National Shipbuilding Strategy
My Lords, for too long we have had feast and famine within our warship shipbuilding industry. Part of the reason for the dreadful situation we are in today is that orders took too long to make and there was no drum beat. We will very shortly have four f
2026-06-10
Mindanao Earthquake
My Lords, can I ask my noble friend the Minister what the closest Royal Navy ship was to the Philippines when this accident happened—because historically the Navy has been very involved in these things—and was its tasking changed at all as a result of th
2026-06-08
UK Defence Capability
My Lords, our Armed Forces and our defence industries are, I believe, teetering on the brink of disaster due to lack of investment over certainly the past 15 years but actually even longer and lack of decisions recently about spending the money that appa
2026-06-08
UK Defence Capability
To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the concerns raised by the Chief of Defence Staff in comments to the BBC regarding (1) the threat posed by Russia to the United Kingdom, and (2) the United Kingdom’s defence capability.
2026-05-19
Supreme Court Dillon Judgment
My Lords, I am a simple sailor. Recently, I have spoken to a number of simple soldiers, who may be even simpler. When we joined the military, we felt that there was an agreement that, as long as we acted in good faith, the country would support us.
I
2026-04-27
Student Visas
My Lords, when the ISC did its study on China last year, we were very concerned to find a large number of Chinese students blocking or filling up courses on quantum, AI and the like. When we analysed further, we found that quite a large number of those s
2026-04-20
Schoolchildren: Swimming
My Lords, my noble friend the Minister will be aware that in the Navy we are all taught to swim. Does she agree with me that it is rather important that we enhance our swimming ability, because the reduced number of ships we have do not now have the weap
My Lords, during the Cold War, I was a member of the “red tie” group, which consisted of intelligence officers, operations teams and the defence industry. Basically, we monitored the Soviet submarine threat. By the end of the Cold War, at any given time,
2026-04-13
Strait of Hormuz: Mine Clearance
To ask His Majesty’s Government what assistance, if any, the UK has agreed to provide with mine clearance operations in the Strait of Hormuz.
2026-04-13
Strait of Hormuz: Mine Clearance
My Lords, I agree entirely with my noble friend the Minister that we must not let this war end with the Strait of Hormuz, a very important international waterway, being closed. It is in global interests and in our interest that this does not happen. We a
2026-03-23
UK Homeland Defence
My Lords, we have to realise that it is almost impossible to defend against exoatmospheric ballistic missiles trying to strike one’s country. Indeed, those are the nuclear warheads—if Russia ever goes to war, nuclear-wise—that will be coming towards us.
My Lords, I understand that the complexities of employment law mean that you have to pay someone some money when they work for you. Has anyone approached Mandelson, who has done disgraceful things, to ask whether he wants to give this money to a buy-a-wa
2026-03-17
BBC World Service: Sustainability
My Lords, what is the future for BBC Monitoring?
2026-03-09
Iran and the Middle East
My Lords, in 2003 the Prime Minister, Mr Blair, met the chiefs of staff just before the invasion of Iraq and we discussed our plan of action. At that meeting, we asked: what is the plan for phase 4? We were told by the Prime Minister that the Americans h
2026-03-03
Gibraltar Treaty
My Lords, many years ago the commander-in-chief of a commando brigade invaded Spain when they were meant to be exercising in Gibraltar. That was quite embarrassing, but my question relates to the military. I have not had a chance to look at the totality
My Lords, 40% of our food comes from abroad. Should there be a World War III, the Royal Navy would be responsible, as in the past, for ensuring that that flow of food continued. Does my noble friend the Minister agree that we really need to get some hast
My Lords, as a member of the ISC, I note that my noble friend the Minister did not say anything about my integrity, which is a bit worrying. I make it absolutely clear that deciding what is in scope to be released is totally for the Cabinet Office. The I
2026-02-09
Royal Navy: Caribbean
To ask His Majesty’s Government whether the Royal Navy ship stationed in the Caribbean is fully a part of Joint Interagency Task Force South.
2026-02-09
Royal Navy: Caribbean
My Lords, I thank my noble friend the Minister for his reply, but the ship based out there does an awful lot of anti-drug work, and that is important for the stability of our overseas territories. It is also an indicator of how much we do for the America
2026-02-02
China: Jimmy Lai
My Lords, in my dealings with the Chinese, I have found that very often the best thing is to make sure that they do not lose face. It is much better to talk quietly in the background and actually show that you could make them lose face if things are not
My Lords, I declare an interest as president of the Bollington and Macclesfield Sea Cadets—there is a northern aspect to me, as you can see. Whenever I have been involved with the uniformed cadet forces, I have been amazed how they have changed the lives
Source: hansard.parliament.uk via hansard-api. Snippets shown
verbatim from the search API; click any debate title for the full record.
Register of Interests · 8 entries on file
Declarations under the Lords Code of Conduct. Free text — no monetary values, no hours worked. A declaration that an interest exists, not a claim about its size.
Category 1: Remunerated employment etc.
-
Member, Advisory Board, Kraken Technology Group Ltd (provides precision design, advanced engineering and technological innovation to performance marine market)
registered 2024-09-17 · amended 2025-04-05
-
Non-executive Director, MCM Solutions (extraction and management of data from digital and non-digital sources)
registered 2013-11-19 · amended 2025-04-05
-
Chairman, Spearfish Security Limited
registered 2012-12-19 · amended 2025-04-05
Category 2: Shareholdings etc. (b)
-
Spearfish Security Ltd
registered 2021-05-03 · amended 2025-04-05
-
Response Exhibitions Ltd
registered 2018-06-22 · amended 2025-04-05
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Security Exhibitions Ltd
registered 2018-06-22 · amended 2025-04-05
Category 6: Gifts, benefits and hospitality
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As a member of the House of Lords Defence Group the member attends regular meetings at which the value of the hospitality received over the course of a calendar year exceeds the registration threshold of £300
registered 2016-07-13 · amended 2025-04-05
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As a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Armed Forces the member attends regular meetings at which the value of the hospitality received over the course of a calendar year exceeds the registration threshold of £300
registered 2016-07-13 · amended 2025-04-05
Source: UK Parliament Members API (Lords register). Refreshed weekly.
Read the full
Lords Code of Conduct
for what each category covers and the disclosure thresholds.
Party history
2007-07-09 → present
Labour
current
Government posts
2007-06-29 → 2010-05-06
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office) (Security and Counter-terrorism)
Opposition posts
None recorded.
Committee memberships
2015-12-03 → 2017-04-27
National Security Strategy (Joint Committee)
2014-06-12 → 2015-03-30
National Security Strategy (Joint Committee)
2024-12-16 → present
Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament
2020-07-14 → 2024-05-30
Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament
Contact
Parliamentary office
westaa@parliament.uk
020 7219 5353 · House of Lords, London, SW1A 0PW
020 7219 5353 · House of Lords, London, SW1A 0PW
APPGs (2026) · 5 active officership(s) · 4 historic
| Group | Role(s) | Funders | Officers in group | Next deadline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Heritage
Subject Group
|
Co-Chair | Royal Society of St George | 4 | 2026-11-30 |
|
All-Party Parliamentary Group on Cyber Security
Subject Group
|
Officer | Wychwood Consulting Ltd | 15 | 2024-05-20 |
|
All-Party Parliamentary Philately Group
Subject Group
|
Vice Chair | — | 5 | 2024-06-04 |
|
Flags and Heraldry All-Party Parliamentary Group
Subject Group
|
Co-Chair | — | 11 | 2024-06-04 |
|
St George's Day All-Party Parliamentary Group
Subject Group
|
Vice Chair | — | 11 | 2024-06-04 |
One row per active APPG. Funder names link out via the
/appgs Top secretariat funders panel — click any funder
there to open its full relationship graph. Officer matching is name-based against
the parliament.uk register text and may miss titled / hyphenated variants.
Written parliamentary questions · 2026
Showing
12
of 12 tabled
12 answered(100.0%)
4
departments
Source: UK Parliament Members API. The amber "interest" tag is set
by Parliament's own system when the asking member has a register entry
it deems related — typically a paid role or directorship in the
sector being asked about. Click any "i" icon to see the full
question and the department's answer.
Bills sponsored & supported · 2026
0 bills
0 as lead sponsor
0 as supporter
No bills sponsored or supported in 2026.
Source: UK Parliament Bills API. "Lead" sponsor is the
primary mover (sortOrder = 1); "Supporter" rows are
members of either House who
backed the bill at introduction. Year is the bill's first-reading
date.
Historic bills (all-time)
4 bills
1 as lead sponsor
3 as supporter
| Bill | Info | Role | Status | Introduced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crime and Security Act 2010 | Supported | Royal Assent | 2009-11-19 | |
| Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 | Sponsored | Royal Assent | 2009-01-14 | |
| Policing and Crime | Supported | Royal Assent | 2008-12-18 | |
| Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 | Supported | Royal Assent | 2008-01-24 |
Same source as the year-scoped panel above, but unconstrained by
year. The "Sponsored" tag = lead sponsor; "Supported" = backed at
introduction. Sorted newest first.