constituency-by-constituency basis. However, Lib Dem President and future Party Leader Tim Farron insisted that "Under no circumstances" would Rennard have a future campaigning role. Rennard was appointed to chair a Commission on the Big Society set up by the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO) to articulate a civil society vision of what charities wanted to achieve through the Big Society agenda. He was formerly a trustee of the charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH). He is a Patron of The Crescent, a centre in St Albans which provides help and support to those living with, or otherwise affected by, HIV. Lord Rennard provides advice and support on campaign, communication, fundraising and management issues through the consultancy Rennard & McTegart Ltd. He is the Director of Communications for the British Healthcare Trades Association (BHTA) and writes a regular "Westminster Watch" column for their Bulletin. House of Lords Rennard was created a life peer on 21 July 1999 as Baron Rennard, of Wavertree in the County of Merseyside, and was introduced in the House of Lords on 27 July 1999. He is the treasurer of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Diabetes and a vice chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health. In the House of Lords, Rennard has mostly spoken on political and constitutional reform issues. He led for the Liberal Democrats in debate on what became the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, that set the framework for rules such as those governing party finance. He spoke in favour of replacing large donor funding of parties, with limited state funding. He has campaigned against abuses of the postal vote system and helped to bring about some reforms to it. He has spoken out strongly for and voted for reform of the House of Lords at every possible stage. In the 2010–2015 Parliament he was responsible for changing proposals to move electoral registration to an entirely voluntary system that some say would have greatly favoured the Conservatives. He was also responsible in the House of Lords for the cross-party amendment that blocked the proposed review of parliamentary boundaries, thought by some to favour the Conservatives by up to 30 seats at the next general election. He also speaks in the Lords on other issues, including some associated with public health including diabetes and smoking. Expenses In May 2009 Rennard was criticised for claiming a