Phil Hunt

Phil Hunt also known as Lord Phil Hunt of Kings Heath is a shadow health minister and the Labour Party’s deputy leader in the Lords.

Background

Hunt has carried out a considerable amount of work related to the health industry and the NHS. Having started off working for the NHS as a works study officer in 1972 for the Oxford Regional Hospital Board, he then went on to work as director of the National Association of Health Authorities and Trusts (NAHAT) and the director of its predecessor organisation, the National Association of Health Authorities (NAHA) from 1984 to 1990.

Between 2004 and 2005 Hunt was chair of the National Patient Safety Agency.

Lord Hunt was ennobled in 1997 and served as a parliamentary under secretary of state in the Department of Health from 1999 until he decided to resign in 2003 over the invasion of Iraq. He was however re-appointed to government in May 2005 as a parliamentary private secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions and then for the Department of Health as minister of state in January 2007.

In the 2008 government reshuffle, Hunt became minister of state in both the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the newly created Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), as well as acting as the deputy leader of the House of Lords.

In May 2012 Lord Hunt was appointed as Labour spokesperson for health in the House of Lords.

Affiliations

• Associate Parliamentary Health Group – Treasurer