Robert Edmiston

[3] In 1988, he founded Christian Vision,[4] a large international evangelical charity, based in Solihull, West Midlands.

[8] On 20 August 2013, the academies were among schools named by The Independent newspaper and the British Humanist Association as adopting policies similar in wording to the repealed anti-gay legislation Section 28.

[9] In 2007, it was announced that Grace Academy, Solihull had awarded contracts worth £281,000 over 2 years to the IM Group for payroll and other "management services" without going to competitive tender.

In response, Edmiston claimed that the school had no capability to pay wages and that he had transferred a member of Christian Vision to manage the project at cost price.

[10] The payments – including for consultancy fees, IT advice and legal services – led to fears that the Department of Education was not monitoring the schools' accounts closely enough.

[13] In 2005 The Times reported that he was on a list of proposed new working peers;[14] however, his nomination was overtaken by the "Cash for Peerages" scandal and was blocked by the House of Lords Appointments Commission.

He sat as a Conservative in the House of Lords,[16] with the title (created 14 January 2011) Baron Edmiston, of Lapworth in the County of Warwickshire.