| Honorific-Prefix: | The Right Honourable |
| The Earl of Caithness | |
| Honorific-Suffix: | PC |
| Office: | Minister of State for Aviation and Shipping |
| Primeminister: | John Major |
| Term Start: | 14 April 1992 |
| Term End: | 11 January 1994 |
| Predecessor: | The Lord Brabazon of Tara |
| Successor: | John Watts |
| Office1: | Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs |
| Primeminister1: | Margaret Thatcher John Major |
| Term Start1: | 14 July 1990 |
| Term End1: | 14 April 1992 |
| Predecessor1: | The Lord Brabazon of Tara |
| Successor1: | Alastair Goodlad |
| Office2: | Paymaster General |
| Primeminister2: | Margaret Thatcher |
| Term Start2: | 25 July 1989 |
| Term End2: | 14 July 1990 |
| Predecessor2: | Peter Brooke |
| Successor2: | Richard Ryder |
| Office3: | Minister of State for Housing |
| Primeminister3: | Margaret Thatcher |
| Term Start3: | 25 July 1988 |
| Term End3: | 25 July 1989 |
| Predecessor3: | William Waldegrave |
| Successor3: | Michael Howard |
| Office4: | Minister of State for Environment |
| Primeminister4: | Margaret Thatcher |
| Term Start4: | 10 January 1988 |
| Term End4: | 25 July 1988 |
| Predecessor4: | The Lord Belstead |
| Successor4: | Michael Howard |
| Office5: | Minister of State for Home Affairs |
| Primeminister5: | Margaret Thatcher |
| Term Start5: | 10 September 1986 |
| Term End5: | 10 January 1988 |
| Predecessor5: | Giles Shaw |
| Successor5: | The Earl Ferrers |
| Office6: | Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport |
| Primeminister6: | Margaret Thatcher |
| Term Start6: | 2 September 1985 |
| Term End6: | 10 September 1986 |
| Predecessor6: | David Mitchell |
| Successor6: | The Lord Brabazon of Tara |
| Office7: | Lord-in-waiting Government Whip |
| Primeminister7: | Margaret Thatcher |
| Term Start7: | 8 May 1984 |
| Term End7: | 2 September 1985 |
| Predecessor7: | The Lord Lyell |
| Successor7: | The Viscount Davidson |
| Office8: | Member of the House of Lords |
| Status8: | Lord Temporal |
| Term Label8: | as a hereditary peer |
| Term Start8: | 2 December 1969 |
| Term End8: | 11 November 1999 |
| Predecessor8: | The 19th Earl of Caithness |
| Successor8: | Seat abolished |
| Term Label9: | as an elected hereditary peer |
| Term Start9: | 11 November 1999 |
| 1Blankname9: | Election |
| 1Namedata9: | 1999 |
| Predecessor9: | Seat established |
| Birth Date: | 3 November 1948 |
| Party: | Conservative |
| Alma Mater: | Marlborough College Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester |
Malcolm Ian Sinclair, 20th Earl of Caithness, (born 3 November 1948), is a Scottish Conservative politician and member of the House of Lords as one of the remaining hereditary peers. He is also 20th Lord Berriedale, 15th Baronet, of Canisbay, Co. Caithness, and chief of Clan Sinclair. He is the Chief Executive of the Clan Sinclair Trust.
Sinclair was educated at Blairmore School, Aberdeenshire (then Marlborough College), and the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester.
Malcolm Caithness served as a House of Lords government-whip under Margaret Thatcher from 1984 to 1985. He then moved to the Department of Transport as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, serving until 1986, the year when he became Minister of State at the Home Office. In 1988, he was once appointed Minister of State at the Department of Environment. In 1989, he became Paymaster General and a Minister of State in the Treasury.[1]
In 1990, Caithness was appointed Minister of State at the Foreign Office, and then, in 1992, back to the Department of Transport. He married Diana Caroline Coke (1953–1994) in 1975. He was made a privy counsellor in 1990.
With the passage of the House of Lords Act 1999, Caithness, along with most other hereditary peers, lost his automatic right to sit in the House of Lords. He was, however, elected as one of the 90 representative peers designed under the provisions of the act to remain in the House of Lords. According to the Electoral Reform Society, he has since blocked further reform of the Lords, tabling 'wrecking' amendments to a draft Bill to abolish by-elections for hereditary peers, proposed by Lord Grocott in 2018.[2]
Caithness is an opponent of fractional-reserve banking.[3]
Caithness was a trustee of Queen Elizabeth Castle of Mey Trust, from its inception in 1996 until 2016. In 1999, he helped found a heritage charity, the Clan Sinclair Trust, the aim of which is the preservation and conservation of Castle Sinclair Girnigoe, near Wick in Caithness. He serves as chief executive and has been responsible for getting the castle listed by the World Monuments Fund in its Watch List of the 100 Most Endangered Sites in the World in 2002, the fundraising and overseeing the remedial works which has allowed the castle to be accessible and open to the public.
Sinclair's mother was Madeleine de Pury, possibly descended from the de Pury family of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, who were members of the Prussian nobility.
In January 1994, Caithness resigned from his post at the Ministry of Transport, following the suicide of his wife, Diana Caroline Coke.[4] In 2004 he married Leila C. Jenkins, whom he had met at Ascot, in Rosslyn Chapel.[5] He filed for divorce a year later.[4]
His children are Lady Iona Alexandra Sinclair (born 1978), and Alexander James Richard Sinclair, Lord Berriedale (born 1981).
There are Clan Sinclair associations in the UK, Australia, Canada, Italy, and the USA.
Malcolm Sinclair has organized the first Clan Sinclair International Gathering in Caithness in 2000, and then again in 2002, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012 (in Norway), and 2015.[6]
In 2009, Sinclair, referring to the role of Clan Chiefs, said "I do not believe there is an obligation towards the clan in any formal sense. For many years I took no interest in the Clan because I was too busy earning a living and bringing up the family...If a chief can give the time, particularly to the Diaspora, then there are huge rewards for everyone and I would hope that most chiefs can do that".[7]