Office of the Leader of the House of Lords

The Office of the Leader of the House of Lords (OLHL) is a ministerial department of the Cabinet Office with the duty of providing support to the Leader of the House of Lords, currently Baroness Smith of Basildon. Duties include assisting the leader in providing information, as well as answering questions from members of the House of Lords and the British Government.^[1]

Office of the Leader of the House of Lords
Welsh: Swyddfa Arweinydd Tŷ'r Arglwyddi

Department overview
Formed	4 April 1721
Headquarters	1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ
Ministers responsible	The Rt Hon The Baroness Smith of Basildon PC, Leader of the House of Lords The Rt Hon The Lord Collins of Highbury, Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
Parent Department	Cabinet Office
Website	gov.uk/leader-lords

The deputy leader also provides support for the office including questioning government ministers and working on legislation debated by the house. The deputy leader is not a cabinet level minister.^[2] It also supports the Lords Whips' Office.

Ministers

The ministers are as follows, with cabinet ministers in bold:

Minister	Portrait	Office	Portfolio
The Rt Hon The Baroness Smith of Basildon PC		Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal	Management and delivery of the Government’s legislative programme (through the House of Lords) and facilitating the passage of individual bills; Leading the House (in the Chamber and as a key member of domestic committees to do with procedure, conduct, and the internal governance of the House); Issues connected to the House of Lords and its governance; Speaking for the Government in the Chamber on a range of issues, including repeating in the House of Lords statements made to the Commons by the Prime Minister; Ceremonial and other duties as the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal.
The Rt Hon The Lord Collins of Highbury		Deputy Leader of the House of Lords	The Deputy Leader of the House of Lords supports the House of Lords in its job of questioning government ministers, improving legislation and debating topics of national significance.

Whips' Office

Minister	Rank	Portfolio
The Rt Hon The Lord Kennedy of Southwark	Chief Whip of the House of Lords Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms	Chief Whip has an active role at the despatch box promoting and defending departmental policy which involves: answering questions responding to debates taking through primary and secondary legislation
The Rt Hon The Baroness Wheeler	Deputy Chief Whip of the House of Lords Captain of the King's Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard	Deputising for the Chief Whip.
The Rt Hon The Lord Collins of Highbury	Lord-in-waiting Government Whip	Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
The Rt Hon The Baroness Taylor of Stevenage OBE	Baroness-in-waiting Government Whip	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
The Rt Hon The Baroness Jones of Whitchurch	Baroness-in-waiting Government Whip	Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and Department for Business and Trade

See also

• Cabinet of the United Kingdom
• Office of the Leader of the House of Commons
• Representative of the Government in the Senate (Canada)