[6][7] He was appointed an independent crossbencher in the House of Lords in 2015 where he has been active on matters relating to infrastructure, science and technology, and education.

His expertise has been sought throughout the world on numerous civil engineering projects involving soft ground tunnelling, retaining structures, deep excavations and foundations.

He was Principal Engineer for Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick, working in their London and Hong Kong offices, 1971–1983; he was seconded to the University of Cambridge, 1976–1979 to research tunnelling in soft ground.

The technique was then successfully applied on the Jubilee Line Extension project for the protection of many historic buildings, including the Big Ben clock tower at the Palace of Westminster.

From 2007 to 2014 he was Co-Chairman of the Singapore Government's International Advisory Board on design and construction aspects of all its underground metro and road tunnels.

Lord Mair was Chairman of the Royal Society/Royal Academy of Engineering Report on Review of Shale Gas and Hydraulic Fracturing, published in 2012.

Following the tragic train derailment in Scotland in August 2020, he was appointed Chair of the Task Force Review of Network Rail's Earthworks Management; the report was published in February 2021.

He has recently chaired similar independent reviews of aspects of Sizewell C nuclear power station, appointed by EDF.

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