Welcome to the Official Website of The Rt Hon The Lord Fraser of Carmyllie QC

Peter Fraser, educated at Loretto School, Musselburgh and graduated BA (Hons) and LLM (Hons), Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, before going to Edinburgh University. He was called to the Scottish Bar in 1969 and in 1972 he lectured part-time in constitutional law at Heriot-Watt University for 2 years. In 1979 he was appointed Standing Junior Counsel for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and became a Queen's Counsel in 1982.

Peter was elected as a Conservative MP for Angus in 1979, where he remained in the House of Commons until June 1987. He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to George Younger, Secretary of State for Scotland. In 1982 he was appointed Solicitor-General for Scotland by Margaret Thatcher and became Lord Advocate in 1989, when he was made a life peer and a member of the Privy Council. During his time as Lord Advocate, he had ultimate responsibility for the Pan Am 103 Lockerbie investigation. He has appeared for the United Kingdom in both the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg and the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

From 1992 to 1995 he was Minister of State at the Scottish Office covering Home Affairs and Health. He was then Minister of State at the Department of Trade and Industry with a responsibility for export promotion and overseas investment with particular emphasis on the oil and gas industry. In 1996 he became Minister for Energy.

In June 2003 he was invited by the First Minister of the Scottish Executive to head an Inquiry into the cost over-run of the new Scottish Parliament at Holyrood. Breaking new ground all the proceedings were allowed to be televised and all documentatioin before the Inquiry (except for limited security matters) was published on the Inquiry website. The Report was delivered in September 2004 within time and under budget.

Lord Fraser has a full portfolio of interests and activities spanning commerce, charity and parliamentary affairs. For details of these please see Interests.