The Lord Houghton of Richmond GCB CBE DL
Crossbench
Member of the House of Lords
M
Lord Houghton of Richmond's full title is The Lord Houghton of Richmond GCB CBE DL. His name is John Nicholas Reynolds Houghton, 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
162 divisions
3 Content(1.9%)
0 Not-Content(0.0%)
159 didn't vote(98.1%)
2026-01-05
Content
132–124
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
2026-06-04
Military in the Gulf
My Lords, despite all the noise about the imminent arrival of much more money, is it not now a fundamental fact that the biggest constraint on both the generation and deployment of British capability is affordability? If one was to look at the relative b
2026-05-21
King’s Speech
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Lamont, now a fellow traveller on the International Relations and Defence Committee. I draw the attention of the House to my relevant defence-related commercial interests, particularly my role as
2026-01-08
Greenland
Given the darkening geopolitical situation and the reality behind the pace at which more money is being spent—frankly, there is this faffing around with the defence investment plan, which is really an exercise in “How can we present to the public somethi
My Lords, I rise to speak in support of Amendment 1, to which I attach my name, and to reinforce the arguments made by my noble and gallant friend Lord Craig of Radley. This amendment is not moved by any wider purpose than common sense, and we trust that
2025-12-08
Strategic Defence Review 2025
More fundamentally, does the Minister agree that the real resilience of a nation does not rest on the state of its physical infrastructure, or military numbers, or the number of boy scouts or reserves that we have, but, rather, it rests on its moral fibr
2025-10-31
Ukraine
My Lords, I am grateful for this debate on Ukraine and the opportunity that it presents. Mine will be an uncomfortable but honest contribution. I start by observing that it is difficult to draw any comfort from an analysis of the tactical situation on th
2025-10-30
National Curriculum: Religious Education
My Lords, the national security strategy and the strategic defence review both talk of the need to build societal resilience in an age of hybrid attacks. I understand that the national resilience Bill, which is to come before the House, deals exclusively
2025-09-09
Ukraine: Negotiations
I thank the Minister for his response, but I thought his view of the prospects for peace was somewhat glossy. Is not a better strategic assessment, first, that Putin shows absolutely no intention of seeking a protracted or final peace, perhaps other than
2025-07-01
F35A and F35B Jets
My Lords, can the Minister confirm that the following precis of programme A activity rings true? The F35As are not additional to the programme; they replace 12 F35Bs. The 12 F35As cost $20 million less per plane than the F35Bs, therefore resulting in a s
My Lords, I echo the words of those who have said, and will no doubt go on to say, what a pleasure it was to be in the Chamber to bear witness to a most delightful maiden speech and an equally thoughtful valedictory one.
The treaty relating to the Cha
2025-06-26
National Security Strategy
My Lords, I congratulate the Government on the strategy, which is both considered and sobering. It is considered because it strikes all the right balances between reinvesting in the conventional deterrents through NATO—the deterrence of Russia by NATO—an
2025-06-03
Strategic Defence Review
I briefly add my congratulations to the authorship of this review. It is, in my view, the most considered, professional and comprehensive review that I have ever seen at close quarters. However, the spectre of fiscal pressure attends every chapter and ev
2025-06-03
UK Nuclear Deterrent
My Lords, does not the Minister crystallise in what he says the stupidity of the situation in which we find ourselves? The declaration that at all costs, at any cost, the nuclear deterrent will be retained, must mean, under a time of fiscal pressure, tha
My Lords, when it comes to opportunity, a ubiquitous one is service in the Armed Forces, which offers access to the greatest number of apprenticeships, longer life expectancy and highly successful second careers. It probably represents the biggest engine
My Lords, I am delighted to follow my good friend, the noble Lord, Lord Marland, and have this opportunity to make a small and relatively brief contribution to this debate. I do not have anything to add to the International Agreements Committee’s excelle
2025-03-26
Future Defence Capability
: My Lords, in the context of additional defence funding, what is now the Government’s dominant policy consideration about how that funding should be spent? Is it to make good our deterrent capability against Russia, or to make good the potential deficit
My Lords, I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak in this debate. I am sorry that I have missed some of it. I declare a relevant interest in the register as an adviser to a defence-related tech company called Thales UK.
I start by agreeing wit
2025-01-28
Russian Maritime Activity and UK Response
My Lords, I thank the Minister for sharing the Statement. In the context of tactical action, it is not a bad tactical response. Having read it only just before today’s sitting, I think it aspires to be an element of strategic messaging—but, as that, it i
My Lords, I welcome this opportunity to debate this excellent report regarding the UK’s strategy towards the Arctic. I share the view that this has been a somewhat neglected area and is now of increasing strategic importance, as the report clearly lays o
2024-12-17
Defence: 2.5% GDP Spending Commitment
My Lords, arguably, one of the most difficult tasks of government is to determine the level of expenditure and therefore capability needed to reduce external threats to the country to an acceptable level of risk or tolerance. Therefore, how can it be rig
2024-12-10
National Youth Strategy
My Lords, if the Government are so keen to expand the role of cadets in a national youth strategy, why have they just pulled the Department for Education’s funding for the cadet expansion programme?
2024-12-05
Ukraine
Do the Government accept that the principal determinant of the outcome of the war in Ukraine will now be the decisions and actions of the incoming US Administration? Are the Government’s efforts focused on influencing those decisions? If so, do they thin
2024-11-25
Defence Programmes Developments
I draw Members’ attention to my relevant registered interest as a member of the Thales advisory board. I offer some sympathy to the Government regarding their defence inheritance, which must appear to be an appalling mismatch between requirements and res
2024-11-25
G20 and COP 29 Summits
My Lords, I heard what the noble Baroness said about the Chagos Islands and Diego Garcia. Surely the strategic issue to be squared within the treaty is not the security of the base but the permissions of the US forces stationed there, particularly the B5
2024-10-23
Ukraine: North Korean Troops
The effective control of escalation in this conflict appears to be vital. Can the Minister in any way reassure the House that we are a fundamental part of some international mechanism that assesses escalation risk?
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 · 12 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.
-
Consultant on defence-related business, Blackstone Inc (investment management)
registered 2026-01-28
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Non-executive Chairman, Defence Holdings plc
registered 2025-10-01
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Non-executive Director, Draken TopCo LLC (holding company)
registered 2025-01-27 · amended 2025-04-05
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Senior Military Adviser (formerly chairman), SecureCloud+ (secure communication and data exploitation services)
registered 2022-04-01 · amended 2026-01-28
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Non-executive Chairman and Director, Draken (Europe) and FR Aviation (aviation services)
registered 2020-10-06 · amended 2026-01-28
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Strategic Adviser, Whitespace (AI-assisted decision making)
registered 2020-08-01 · amended 2026-01-28
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Senior Defence and Security Adviser, Thales UK (defence and technical company)
registered 2018-09-13 · amended 2025-04-05
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Chairman, Byzgen (tech start-up) (entered voluntary administration 2 July 2025)
registered 2018-09-13 · amended 2026-01-28
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Occasional speaker, Leading Authorities International (speakers agency)
registered 2018-01-10 · amended 2026-01-28
Category 2: Shareholdings etc. (b)
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Defence Holdings plc (the member holds share warrants)
registered 2025-10-23
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Whitespace (AI-assisted decision making)
registered 2020-07-29 · amended 2026-01-28
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Tadaweb (open-source data search)
registered 2018-01-10 · amended 2026-01-28
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
2017-11-20 → present
Crossbench
current
Government posts
None recorded.
Opposition posts
None recorded.
Committee memberships
2023-01-31 → 2023-11-23
AI in Weapon Systems Committee
2024-01-31 → present
International Relations and Defence Committee
Contact
Parliamentary office
contactholmember@parliament.uk
020 7219 5353 · House of Lords, London, SW1A 0PW
020 7219 5353 · House of Lords, London, SW1A 0PW
APPGs (2026) · 1 active officership(s) · 1 historic
| Group | Role(s) | Funders | Officers in group | Next deadline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
All-Party Parliamentary Group on Technology and National Security
Subject Group
|
Vice Chair | Centre for Emerging Technology and Security | 5 | 2023-11-21 |
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
No written questions tabled in 2026.
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)
0 bills
0 as lead sponsor
0 as supporter
No bills sponsored or supported on record.
Same source as the year-scoped panel above, but unconstrained by
year. The "Sponsored" tag = lead sponsor; "Supported" = backed at
introduction. Sorted newest first.