David Hunt was Senior Partner of Beachcroft Wansbroughs, Solicitors, from 1996 to 2005 and is now chairman of the financial services division of Beachcroft LLP, specialising in insurance and financial services. He also advises the Association of British Insurers and BUPA.
David was educated at Liverpool College and he went on to graduate from Bristol University in Law. He is now Chairman of the English Speaking Union, having been a Governor and then Deputy Chairman for many years.
David was elected MP for Wirral in March 1976 and spent 21 years as an MP. In 1979, he became a member of Margaret Thatcher’s administration as Parliamentary Private Secretary to John Nott, as a Whip and then as Coal Minister during the coal strikes. He was appointed Deputy Chief Whip after the General Election in 1987. After serving as Minister for Local Government and Inner Cities from 1989 to 1990, he was appointed to Margaret Thatcher's cabinet as Secretary of State for Wales. Re-appointed in that position by John Major, he became Secretary of State for Employment in 1993 and then Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in 1994-1995.
As a Member of the House of Lords, he is an officer of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Insurance and Financial Services and is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences on insurance and reinsurance. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) and was the first independent Chairman of its Professional Standards Board. He is President of the CII for 2007 to 2008. He has also been elected a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries and was given the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2004 Insurance Times Awards.
David Hunt is President of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Occupational Health and Safety, an honorary fellow of the International Institute of Risk and Safety Management and a Trustee of the British Occupational Health Research Foundation. A leading authority on rehabilitation, he co-founded - and was the first Chairman of - the Case Management Society UK (CMSUK).
David Hunt was awarded an MBE in 1973 and appointed to the Privy Council in 1990. He was made a Life Peer as Lord Hunt of Wirral in 1997 and is President and Patron of over 50 charities and voluntary organisations.
