Rooker stood down as an MP at the 2001 general election and was created a life peer on 16 June 2001 with the title Baron Rooker, "of Perry Barr in the County of the West Midlands". As a member of the House of Lords, he was re-appointed to the government as the Minister of State for Asylum and Immigration and remained in the post for a year. He then was moved to the Department for Communities and Local Government, where he served as Minister of State for Housing and Planning, then subsequently Minister of State for Regeneration and Regional Development.