By 1967, aged 37, he was one of the two deputy heads of the coal division of the Ministry of Power, with the rank of assistant secretary.

Dearing briefed the then Minister, Richard Marsh on the question of the possible removal of Lord Robens as chair of the National Coal Board in the wake of the damning Davies Report, which found the Coal Board wholly responsible for the disaster, and on the issue of the removal of the remaining tips above the town.

[7] He was chairman of Ufi Ltd between 1998 and 2001, and their Sheffield based head office is named Dearing House after him.

[16] In the 1998 New Year Honours, he was announced to be a life peer[17] and was raised to the peerage as Baron Dearing, of Kingston upon Hull in the County of the East Riding of Yorkshire.

Similarly, in 2004, he visited Hymers College, Kingston upon Hull, whereupon he opened the new science block with the purpose of educating the children in the areas of physics and chemistry.