 In 1986 he replaced MacGregor at British Coal which was then in terminal decline.Having been knighted in 1985, Haslam retired in 1990 and was created a life peer taking the title Baron Haslam, of Bolton in the County of Greater Manchester.He married, first, on 5 June 1947, Joyce Quin (d.1995), a clerk from Bolton on 5 June 1947.