Karan Bilimoria, founder and chief executive of Cobra Beer, was one of seven figures recommended to be non-party political peers.

Others on the list include Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, former head of the family court system.

The House of Lords Appointments Commission has recommended the peers.

The list now goes to the prime minister, who has promised to accept the commission's recommendations and pass them to the Queen.

Mental health experts

The new peers will also feature Sir Geoffrey Dear, former chief inspector of constabulary, and Professor Colin Low, the chairman of the Royal National Institute of the Blind.

Sir David Rowe-Beddoe, chairman of the Wales Millennium Centre and former chairman of the Welsh Development Agency, is also recommended for a peerage.

The list is completed by Professor Kamlesh Patel, an academic and government advisor with expertise in mental health, drugs and ethnicity, and Molly Meacher, chairman of the East London and City Mental Health Trust.

Ms Meacher is the former wife of Labour ex-minister Michael Meacher but is not taking a partisan role in the Lords and has been nominated by the independent commission.