Trafford was on hospital duty at the time of the Brighton hotel bombing of the Conservative Party conference in 1984 and had a leading role in treating the casualties who were taken in first instance to the Royal Sussex County Hospital. Trafford was subsequently knighted in 1985 and created a life peer as Baron Trafford, of Falmer in the County of East Sussex on 3 April 1987. Both honours were awarded by Margaret Thatcher. He was appointed as Minister of State for Health in the House of Lords in July 1989, to take charge of government proposals on the Warnock Report on Human Fertilisation.