← Back to all Lords
Official portrait of The Rt Hon. the Lord Benyon GCVO

The Rt Hon. the Lord Benyon GCVO

Crossbench Member of the House of Lords M
Lord Benyon's full title is The Rt Hon. the Lord Benyon GCVO. His name is Richard Henry Ronald Benyon, 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.

Political donations made

Total donated (all years on record) £10,000
2 donations across 1 distinct recipient
Matched donor name: Lord Richard H R Benyon
Date Recipient Type EC Ref Amount
2024-02-15 Conservative and Unionist Party · Newbury Cash C0578325 £5,000
2023-10-11 Conservative and Unionist Party · Newbury Cash C0574829 £5,000
Showing the 2 most recent donations on record. Source: Electoral Commission donations register (search.electoralcommission.org.uk). Match confidence: unique-surname.

Ministerial activity

Records on file 221
192 meetings · 4 hospitality · 0 gifts · 25 overseas trips · 2021-04-01 → 2024-06-30
Total overseas travel cost £80,285

Recent meetings · latest 20 of 192

Date Met with Purpose Source
2024-05-22 Orsted To discuss offshore wind foreign-commonwealth-development-office
2024-05-22 Green Alliance To discuss nature markets foreign-commonwealth-development-office
2024-05-02 Marine Conservation Society, Blue Marine Foundation, Oceana, Surfers Against Sewage, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Pew International, Ocean Conservation Trust, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, National Oceanography Centre, WWF, Environmental Justice Foundation, RSPB To discuss ocean conservation issues foreign-commonwealth-development-office
2024-05-01 Zac Goldsmith To discuss Unlocking Blue Pacific Prosperity foreign-commonwealth-development-office
2024-05-01 Convention on Biological Diversity To discuss preparations for the United Nations Biodiversity Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in October, Digital Sequence Information and international green finance. foreign-commonwealth-development-office
2024-05-01 Royal Agricultural University To discuss monitoring contaminated agricultural land in Ukraine foreign-commonwealth-development-office
2024-04-30 Wildlife Trust To discuss offshore wind foreign-commonwealth-development-office
2024-04-29 Green Finance Institute To discuss the Nature Risk Quantification Report foreign-commonwealth-development-office
2024-04-17 International Energy Agency To discuss the IEA Summit on clean cooking in May foreign-commonwealth-development-office
2024-03-26 Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) Meeting to discuss Climate Prosperity Plans and Climate Vulnerable Forum funcionality. department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs
2024-03-26 Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) To discuss Climate Prosperity Plans and CVF functionality foreign-commonwealth-development-office
2024-03-25 The International Conservation Caucus Foundation (ICCF) Group Meeting to discuss nature finance and the Biodiverse Landscapes Fund department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs
2024-03-25 The International Conservation Caucus Foundation (ICCF) Group To discuss nature finance and the Biodiverse Landscapes Fund foreign-commonwealth-development-office
2024-03-06 Joint Nature Conservation Committee; Royal Society for the Protection of Birds; Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; British Trust for Ornithology; National Trust; Natural England; Wildlife and Countryside Link. Meeting to discuss seabirds and the impacts of avian influenza outbreak, roundtable meeting department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs
2024-03-06 Joint Nature Conservation Committee; Royal Society for the Protection of Birds; Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; British Trust for Ornithology; National Trust; Natural England; Wildlife and Countryside Link. To discuss seabirds and the impacts of avian influenza outbreak, roundtable meeting. foreign-commonwealth-development-office
2024-02-28 CCm Technologies Meeting to discuss Green Finance department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs
2024-02-28 CCm Technologies To discuss Green Finance foreign-commonwealth-development-office
2024-01-29 Green Alliance Meeting to discuss Improving the environment initiatives department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs
2024-01-29 Green Alliance To discuss Improving the environment initiatives foreign-commonwealth-development-office
2024-01-24 Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) Meeting to discuss Climate Vulnerable Forum strategy across Afric, bialateral with incoming Secretary General department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs

Recent hospitality

Date Host Type Value
2023-10-01 Nil Return
2023-05-22 President's Lunch
2022-06-06 Breakfast, dinner and accomodation
2022-05-26 Breakfast, lunch, dinner and accomodation

Recent overseas travel · latest 20 of 25

Dates Destination Purpose Total cost
2024-05-27 2024-05-30 St John's, Antigua
Scheduled flight
Attended the Small Island Developing States Conference £2,151
2024-05-13 2024-05-15 Paris, France
Eurostar
Attended the International Energy Agency Clean Cooking Summit; and International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits event £664
2024-04-19 2024-04-20 Paphos, Cyprus
Scheduled flight
Attended the Commonwealth Ocean Ministerial meeting £319
2024-04-15 2024-04-15 Paris, France
Eurostar
Attended Ministerial meeting for advancing the peace initiatives for Sudan; and Sudan Humanitarian Pledging event £890
2024-04-07 2024-04-11 Luanda, Angola
Scheduled flight
Bilateral meetings with President, Foreign Minister; discussing conflict in eastern DRC and UK-Angola climate work and opportunities. £6,705
2024-03-12 2024-03-15 Kinshasa; Democratic Republic of the Congo
Scheduled flight
Bilateral meetings on conflict in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo with DRC President, Foreign Minister & Economy Ministers £8,712
2024-03-12 2024-03-15 Kinshasa, DRC
Scheduled flight
Bilateral meetings on conflict in Eastern DRC; with DRC President, Foreign Minister, & Econ Ministers £8,712
2024-03-07 2024-03-07 Brussels; Begium
Eurostar
To attend the Blue Leaders High-Level Event £291
2024-03-07 2024-03-07 Brussels, Belgium
Eurostar
To attend Blue Leaders High-Level Event £291
2024-02-18 2024-02-22 San Jose; Coasta Rica
Scheduled flight
To attend Mission Bioeconomy Futures conference £9,318
2024-02-18 2024-02-22 San Jose, Costa Rica
Scheduled flight
To attend Mission Bioeconomy Futures conference. £9,318
2024-02-06 2024-02-08 Saint Georges; Grenada
Scheduled flight
To attend Grenada’s 50th anniversary of independence (from the UK) ceremonial events £7,843
2024-02-06 2024-02-08 Saint Georges, Grenada
Scheduled flight
To attend Grenada’s 50th anniversary of independence (from the UK) ceremonial events. £7,843
2024-01-13 2024-01-17 Guatemala City; Guatemala, Flores; Guatemala
Scheduled flight
To attend the Presidential inauguration and hold bilaterial meetings on climate and environment. Also visited a Department for Ennvironment, Food & Rural Affairs funded Biodiverse Landscapes Fund project to push for effective implementation. £8,613
2024-01-13 2024-01-17 Guatemala City and Flores, Guatemala
Scheduled flight
To attend the Presidential inauguration and hold bilaterial meetings on climate and environment. Lord Benyon also visited a DEFRA funded Biodiverse Landscapes Fund project to push for effective implementation. £8,613
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Scheduled flight
Attending COP29
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Scheduled flight
Attending COP28
Dubai
Scheduled flight
Attending COP29
Dubai
Scheduled flight
Attending COP28
Meknes, Morocco
Scheduled flight
Guest of honour representing Defra at the Siam Royal Agriculture Show 2023
Source: gov.uk ministerial transparency returns. Coverage: HM Treasury and DSIT. Published quarterly under the Ministerial Code; refreshed monthly on the 7th.

Lords votes · 2026

No Lords votes recorded for 2026.

Recent Hansard contributions · latest 25

2026-01-12 Message from the King
My Lords, I have the honour to notify your Lordships that His Majesty the King, having been informed that your Lordships have elected Lord Forsyth of Drumlean to be Lord Speaker, has pleasure in confirming your Lordships’ choice of him as your Speaker.
2024-07-25 King’s Speech
My Lords, it is a privilege to have been taken off the subs’ bench to conclude this debate for the Opposition. I will start where many others have, by welcoming the noble Baroness, Lady Anderson, and the noble Lord, Lord Coaker, to their places on the Go
2024-05-09 Uganda: Anti-Homosexuality Act
I thank the noble Lord for that very important point. I spoke to the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth on this subject and we have agreed to continue to discuss it in the lead-up to CHOGM. We want to make sure that human rights and the very values th
2024-05-09 Uganda: Anti-Homosexuality Act
Our bilateral ODA, which is due to increase quite considerably this financial year, goes not to the Government of Uganda but to very specific areas of need, such as strengthening health systems and empowering women. We prevented 2.4 million unintended pr
2024-05-09 Uganda: Anti-Homosexuality Act
I think I can reassure the noble Lord. I met with our high commissioner to Uganda this week, and she gave me details of many of the projects we are doing with civil society organisations. For example, some of our overseas development assistance money goe
2024-05-09 Uganda: Anti-Homosexuality Act
I thank my noble friend. We will work with any Government of Uganda; they are important allies and members of the Commonwealth, and they are doing important work elsewhere in Africa for peace and security. However, it is only through having a good, frien
2024-05-09 Uganda: Anti-Homosexuality Act
The noble Lord has done so much work in this area, and of course we agree with him. The problem with this kind of legislation is that it deters people from seeking the medical help that they need for what is now a curable disease, maybe to the point wher
2024-05-09 Uganda: Anti-Homosexuality Act
I will start with the last point: I entirely agree with the noble Lord, and I thank him for all the work he has done on this and many other related issues. This is an appalling situation for minorities in Uganda and is part of a pattern that, unfortunate
2024-05-09 Uganda: Anti-Homosexuality Act
My Lords, Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act has increased violence and discrimination against LGBT+ people. The UK has made its opposition clear to all levels of the Ugandan Government. On 3 April, the Ugandan Constitutional Court struck down some provisio
2024-05-09 Artificial Light and Noise: Effects on Human Health (Science and Technology Committee Report)
Six years.
2024-05-09 Artificial Light and Noise: Effects on Human Health (Science and Technology Committee Report)
I thank all noble Lords for their valuable contributions to this debate, which has been fascinating. I particularly thank the noble Baroness, Lady Brown of Cambridge, for securing this debate on an important subject that affects people’s daily lives and
2024-05-08 Carbon Budget Delivery Plan: High Court Ruling
The judgment did not actually criticise the measures. The plan has more than 300 measures and proposals for the Government to deliver. It was a process failure, if you like, to make sure that the Secretary of State had all the information at his fingerti
2024-05-08 Carbon Budget Delivery Plan: High Court Ruling
I am not aware of those sites, but it is predicted that, even if all those licences are taken up, there will be a continuing reduction of 7% a year in oil and gas requirements for this country. That is one of the fastest reductions in fossil fuel require
2024-05-08 Carbon Budget Delivery Plan: High Court Ruling
My noble friend may be right—but why would we not want to do this? The net-zero economy grew by 9% last year, and there is £74 billion of gross value added to British businesses in the net-zero work being done right across the industrial sectors. So it
2024-05-08 Carbon Budget Delivery Plan: High Court Ruling
This is a matter on which my colleague, my noble friend Lord Callanan, will have the facts at his fingertips. I will make sure that he or I contact the noble Baroness for the details of how carbon capture and storage will deliver and can be a major sourc
2024-05-08 Carbon Budget Delivery Plan: High Court Ruling
That is precisely an example of what the Government can do by putting their money where their mouth is. Some £6 billion has been put into that scheme up until 2025, and that will go a long way to tackling the greenhouse gas emissions from housing, which
2024-05-08 Carbon Budget Delivery Plan: High Court Ruling
We have to work with the Climate Change Committee to show that they can be. Interestingly, the judge said in his judgment that the assessment involved “an evaluative, predictive judgment as to what may transpire up to 14 years into the future, based o
2024-05-08 Carbon Budget Delivery Plan: High Court Ruling
The noble Lord asks a very detailed question. The third carbon budget ended in 2022, so I do not think that issues such as Covid will have been particularly relevant to that. We exceeded that by 15%. The noble Lord outlined some of the most difficult are
2024-05-08 Carbon Budget Delivery Plan: High Court Ruling
The Government are determined, as all of us who supported the Climate Change Act are, to live by the legal requirements we set for all Governments to hit the carbon budgets. The Carbon Budget Delivery Plan was not criticised for the measures it included.
2024-05-08 Carbon Budget Delivery Plan: High Court Ruling
My Lords, we are immensely proud of our record on climate change, having gone further and faster than any other major economy in cutting our carbon emissions. The Carbon Budget Delivery Plan sets out more than 300 policies and proposals which the Governm
2024-04-30 Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures
I entirely agree with the noble Baroness. A sector whose currency is risk should be at the forefront of this. This is about making sure that investments of whatever form are investable, and if an insurance company is not thinking about that, it is way be
2024-04-30 Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures
I do. At the TNFD’s early adopters moment at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, 320 institutions from 46 countries publicly confirmed their commitment to adopt the TNFD recommendations. Of those early adopters, 46 were UK- headquartered organi
2024-04-30 Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures
There is a lot of talking about it but there is also a lot of action. Any day now, we will publish our forest risk commodities regulation, which will be debated by this House and will be an effective way of making sure that consumers here know that they
2024-04-30 Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures
Climate and nature finance are raised at all those fora. The most important thing is that the Government have put a large amount of money in. We have backed the Green Finance Institute, a wonderful organisation, with £4.8 million to do a number of differ
2024-04-30 Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures
The noble Baroness is absolutely right. Assessing the Materiality of Nature-Related Financial Risks for the UK is an outstanding report, which needs to be read by chairmen of risk companies all over the world. It identifies precisely that this problem is
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 · 6 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.

  • Adviser (formerly director), ELT Recovery Ltd (tyre recycling) (remuneration is in the form of share options)
    registered 2025-06-27 · amended 2025-11-27
  • Director, De Beauvoir Block (letting and operating of commercial property)
    registered 2024-11-01 · amended 2025-04-05
  • Chairman and Director, Englefield Estate Trust Corporation Ltd (EETCLtd) (company holds trusteeship of various family trusts of the member which hold land and property)
    registered 2024-11-01 · amended 2025-04-05
  • Lord Chamberlain of HM the King's Household
    registered 2024-11-01 · amended 2025-04-05

Category 2: Shareholdings etc. (a)

  • Englefield Estate Trust Corporation Limited (company holds trusteeship of various family trusts of the member which hold land and property)
    registered 2021-02-24 · amended 2025-04-05

Category 2: Shareholdings etc. (b)

  • Ceed Ltd (educational technology company)
    registered 2021-02-24 · 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

2024-09-10present
Crossbench current
2019-10-302024-09-09
Conservative
2019-09-042019-10-29
Independent
2005-05-052019-09-04
Conservative

Government posts

2024-11-04present
Lord Chamberlain (HM Household)
2023-11-142024-07-05
Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
2022-10-302024-07-05
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
2021-05-132022-10-29
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
2010-05-172013-10-07
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Opposition posts

2009-01-192010-05-06
Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
2007-07-032009-01-19
Opposition Whip (Commons)

Committee memberships

2005-07-122007-10-22
Home Affairs Committee
2010-07-262013-11-25
Environmental Audit Committee
2014-11-032015-03-30
Committees on Arms Export Controls
2015-07-062016-10-31
Defence Committee
2014-11-032015-03-30
Defence Committee
2015-09-082016-10-31
Defence Sub-Committee
2016-10-202017-05-03
Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament

Contact

Parliamentary office
benyonr@parliament.uk
020 7219 5353 · House of Lords, London, SW1A 0PW

APPGs (2026) · 0 active officership(s) · 2 historic

Not currently an officer of any active APPG. Was officer of 2 group(s) historically — those rotated off in later snapshots.

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)

3 bills 2 as lead sponsor 1 as supporter
Bill Info Role Status Introduced
Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023 Supported Royal Assent 2022-05-25
Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022 Sponsored Royal Assent 2021-05-13
Armed Forces (Statute of Limitations) Bill Sponsored 2nd reading 2017-11-01
Same source as the year-scoped panel above, but unconstrained by year. The "Sponsored" tag = lead sponsor; "Supported" = backed at introduction. Sorted newest first.
Loading… this can take up to a minute.