Patrick Carter, Baron Carter of Coles

Carter was educated at Brentwood School, Essex, where he was a contemporary of Jack Straw.{{Cite web |title=Man on the inside who believes in outsiders {{!}} Sport {{!}} The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2006/sep/15/gdnsport3.sport |access-date=2024-06-27 |website=amp.theguardian.com}} In his autobiography, Straw described Carter as his closest friend.{{Cite book |last=Straw |first=Jack |title=Last Man Standing: Memoirs of a Political Survivor |publisher=Pan Books |year=2013 |isbn=978-1447222767 |pages=49}}

Carter then studied economics at Durham University and joined an investment bank as a trainee after he graduated.{{Cite web |title=Lord Carter of Coles Patrick Carter |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/people/patrick-carter |access-date=2024-06-27 |website=GOV.UK |language=en}}

In 1985, Carter founded Westminster Health Care, which provided radiology services as well as care to the elderly and those with special needs.{{Cite web |title=Lord Patrick Carter {{!}} The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust |url=https://www.royalwolverhampton.nhs.uk/about-us/our-board/lord-patrick-carter.html |access-date=2024-06-27 |website=www.royalwolverhampton.nhs.uk}} He sold the healthcare provider in 1999.

Carter has served on the boards of several US and UK healthcare, insurance and information technology companies.{{Cite news |date=2007-05-23 |title=Lord Carter of Coles |url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2007/may/23/publicservicesawards2 |access-date=2024-06-27 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} He was president of McKesson Corporation's International Operations Group and was responsible for the company's product portfolio.{{Cite web |last=Illman |first=James |title=Lord Carter outlines early priorities for procurement |url=https://www.hsj.co.uk/finance-and-efficiency/lord-carter-outlines-early-priorities-for-procurement/5072284.article |access-date=2024-06-27 |website=Health Service Journal |language=en}}

He is currently the chair of Primary Insurance Group and Health Services Laboratories.

Carter has advised the UK government on a wide range of issues. He helped resolve funding problems that surrounded Manchester's hosting of the 2002 Commonwealth Games.{{Cite web |title=Man on the inside who believes in outsiders {{!}} Sport {{!}} The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2006/sep/15/gdnsport3.sport |access-date=2024-06-27 |website=amp.theguardian.com}} He was also the lead facilitator in the resolution of a major financial dispute between Multiplex Construction UK Ltd and Wembley National Stadium Ltd, when the stadium was redeveloped prior to its re-opening in 2007.

Carter also led government reviews into the Criminal Records Bureau, offender management, the procurement of legal aid, national athletics, public diplomacy, and pathology services. In his 2015 review of NHS spending, Carter argued that the NHS in England could save £5 billion a year through better staff organisation and an improved approach to purchasing.{{Cite news |date=11 June 2015 |title=Simple steps 'could save NHS £5bn' |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-33071066 |work=BBC News}}

Carter was Chair of Sport England from 2002 to 2006; a board member of the London 2012 Olympic bid; a member of HM Treasury’s Productivity Panel; and a non-executive member of the Home Office and Prisons Boards. He also chairs the procurement and efficiency board at the Department of Health and Social Care.

Carter was ranked by the Health Service Journal as the ninth most influential person in NHS England in 2015.{{cite news|title=HSJ100 2015|url=http://www.hsj.co.uk/7000366.article|accessdate=23 December 2015|publisher=Health Service Journal|date=23 November 2015}}

In 2021, Carter was the only Labour member of the House of Lords to vote against an amendment to the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 that would have reduced existing long lease ground rents to a peppercorn, or zero financial value. In 2025, The Telegraph reported that Carter was a freeholder, through The Freehold Corporation of which he was a director, of a 122-flat development in Ilford, east London with ground rent charges that increased every five years by the retail price index, negatively affecting the mortgageability and saleability of leaseholders' homes.{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/property/labour-peer-trapped-unable-sell-homes/ |title='Labour peer left us trapped and unable to sell our homes' |last=Ivens |first=Fran |website=The Telegraph |location=London |url-access=subscription |date=25 March 2025 |access-date=26 March 2025}}{{cite web |url=https://votes.parliament.uk/votes/lords/division/2550#not-contents |title=Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill [HL] - Division 5 |publisher=UK Parliament |work=House of Lords |date=20 July 2021 |access-date=26 March 2025}}

Carter is an active farmer in Hertfordshire and has a villa in France.{{Cite web |last=UK Parliament |title=Registered Interests |url=https://members.parliament.uk/member/3680/registeredinterests |access-date=27 June 2024}}

Carter was made a life peer as Baron Carter of Coles, of Westmill in the County of Hertfordshire on the advice of Prime Minister Tony Blair on 8 June 2004.{{London Gazette

| issue = 57323

| date = 14 June 2004

| page = 7379

}} He takes the Labour whip.

{{Reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060109084121/http://www.legalaidprocurementreview.gov.uk/ Lord Carter's Review of Legal Aid Procurement]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110623160425/http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/patrick-carter/32300 Lord Carter's bio on the Official House of Lords website]
• [https://www.theyworkforyou.com/peer/lord_carter_of_coles Lord Carter of Coles] entry on TheyWorkForYou

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Carter, Patrick Robert

Category:People educated at Brentwood School, Essex

Carter, Patrick Robert

Carter of Coles, Patrick Carter, Baron

Category:Alumni of Hatfield College, Durham

Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II

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