Lord Soley
…was a Labour Party MP from 1979, first for the constituency of Hammersmith North, then Hammersmith and finally Ealing, Acton and Shepherd’s Bush from 1997 to 2005. He was Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party from 1997 to 2001. In 2005 it was announced that he would be given a life peerage, and on 29 June 2005 he was created Baron Soley, of Hammersmith in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. He enjoys walking, photography and scuba diving. He has been blogging since 2003 and has played a leading role in developing this blog.
Lord Norton of Louth
…was appointed Professor of Government at the University of Hull in 1986 at the age of 35. In 1992 he also became Director of the Centre for Legislative Studies. In 1998 he was elevated to the House of Lords as Lord Norton of Louth. He chaired the Conservative Party’s Commission to Strengthen Parliament, which reported in 2000. From 2001 to 2004 he was Chairman of the House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution. He is the author or editor of 28 books.
Baroness D’Souza
…is a British scientist and Lord Speaker in the House of Lords. She graduated from University College, London with a Bachelor of Science in anthropology in 1970 and graduated from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford with a Doctor of Philosophy in 1976. Baroness D’Souza worked for the Nuffield Institute of Comparative Medicine from 1973 to 1977, the Oxford Polytechnic from 1977 to 1980 and was independent research consultant for the UN from 1985 to 1988. She was created a life Peer as Baroness D’Souza, of Wychwood in the County of Oxfordshire on 1 July 2004. Baroness D’Souza has two children.
Find out more about the Lord Speaker – visit the Lord Speaker’s website
Lord Lipsey
…was raised to the peerage as Baron Lipsey, of Tooting Bec in the London Borough of Wandsworth 1999. He has been a political adviser to Anthony Crosland in Opposition and an adviser to 10 Downing Street. He has worked as a journalist for a variety of different publications including The Sunday Times, Sunday Correspondent, The Times and The Economist. In his spare time he likes to do the following: golf, harness, horse and greyhound racing, opera, walking and cooking.
Lord Tyler
…was MP for Bodmin February-October 1974 and MP for North Cornwall 1992-2005. He was the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Agriculture and Rural Affairs. He was also Chief Whip, Shadow Leader of the House of Commons and Spokesperson for Constitutional Reform. Paul retired as an MP at the 2005 General Election and was subsequently made a life Peer. He is involved with a number of charities and academic institutions in the fields of international environmental exchanges, education in developing countries and cooperation between faith communities in the UK. In the Lords, he is Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Constitutional Affairs. His official title is Baron Tyler, of Linkinhorne in the County of Cornwall.
Lord Dholakia
…became a life Peer in 1997 and is a frontbench spokesperson for Communities. He was also elected to the post of Liberal Democrat Party President in 1999 and in 2002. In November 2004 he was elected joint Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat Peers. In 1969 he became Secretary of the Liberal Party’s Race and Community Relations Panel. Then, from 1976, Lord Dholakia worked for the Commission for Racial Equality and, most recently, was a member of the Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain. His political interests also encompass criminal justice and penal affairs. He has been involved in the Sussex Police Authority, the Police Complaints Authority and as a council member of the Howard League for Penal Reform since 1992. He is married and has two daughters.
Lord Teverson
…was Member of the European Parliament for Cornwall and West Plymouth between 1994 and 1999, becoming one of the first two Liberal Democrats elected to the European Parliament. He was Chief Whip of the European Liberal Democrat Group from 1997 to 1999. In Europe he spoke on marine, transport and regional policy issues. He joined the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords in 2006, speaking on climate change and energy issues. He is now the Party’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs spokesman in the Lords.
Baroness Young of Hornsey
…is a British artist, teacher and Crossbench Peer. She worked as a professional actor from 1976 to 1984 and was a residential social worker in the London Borough of Islington from 1971 to 1973. Her most prominent role was in the children’s sitcom Metal Mickey which ran from 1980 – 1983. In 1985, she became co-director and training and development manager at the Haringey Arts Council, a post she held until 1989. From 1990 to 1992, she was lecturer in media studies at the Polytechnic of West London. She was lecturer, senior lecturer, principal lecturer, Professor of Cultural Studies and, in the end, Emeritus Professor at the Middlesex University. She became Project Director of the Archives and Museum of Black Heritage in 1997, Commissioner in the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts in 2000 and 2001 and Chair at the Nitro Theatre Company in 2004. In the same year, she was created a life peer as Baroness Young of Hornsey, of Hornsey in the London Borough of Haringey. She is married with one son.
Baroness Murphy
…is a Crossbench Peer. After qualifying as a doctor and later teaching as an academic in the NHS for 25 years, she spent a period as a Health Service general manager between 1984 and 1990 which included the post of District General Manager for Lewisham and North Southwark Health Authority. Most recently she was Professor of Psychiatry of Old Age at Guy’s Hospital, and was Chair of the North East London Strategic Health Authority until 30 June 2006. Baroness Murphy is currently Chair of Council at St George’s, University of London , a non-executive board member of Monitor (Independent Regulator of NHS Foundation Trust Hospitals) and a Vice-President of the Alzheimer’s Society. In 2004, she was made a life Peer as Baroness Murphy, of Aldgate in the City of London, taking interest in mental health, education, healthcare and ageing issues in the House of Lords. She is married and lives in Norfolk.
Lord Lucas
…arrived in the Lords in 1992 following the death of his mother. His primary interest is Education and he edits the Good Schools Guide. Lord Lucas has a keen interest in libertarian issues, planning, e-government – whatever he can do in the time available.
Lord Hylton
…has been active member of the House of Lords since 1971 he has been independent since 1982 and was elected in 1999. He is a former Chairman of the National Federation of Housing Associations and other housing organizations. His interests are working for peace in the Middle East, the Balkans, Northern Ireland and he is keen on religious dialogue and human rights. He still farms in Somerset and is married with five children.
Baroness Thornton
…was elevated to the House of Lords in 1998, having previously been chair of the Greater London Labour Party between 1986 to 1991. She is a Yorkshirewoman and lives in Shipley, Bradford. Her particular interests are in policy affecting children, London, media and social enterprise. Since becoming a member of the House of Lords, Baroness Thornton has been Government Whip and a Spokesperson for Health, Work and Pensions, Equality and International Development. She is currently Opposition Spokesperson for Health and Equalities. Outside of the House of Lords, she is a member of the Court of Governors of the London School of Economics
Baroness Deech
…was a tutor in law at Oxford University, elected Principal of St Anne’s College, and a pro Vice-Chancellor. She was also Chair of the UK Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority, was one of the last Governors of the BBC and a Rhodes Scholarships Trustee. She was the first Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education for England and Wales and 2008 was appointed Gresham Professor of Law, London, and lectures on family law. She also Chairs the Bar Standards Board and has just completed a report for the Department of Health on Women Doctors – Making a Difference. She was created a life peer in 2005 and sits in the House of Lords as a cross-bench Peer. She is a member of the Merits of Statutory Instruments Committee which scrutinises a thousand statutory instruments a year.
Baroness Grey-Thompson
…is a successful paralympic athlete. She competed for 16 years at the highest level in her sport, winning a total of 16 medals, including 11 gold medals in five Paralympic Games. Following her retirement from competition in 2007, Baroness Grey-Thompson has played an active role in the administration of sport, becoming Vice-President of the Women’s Sports Foundation, a non-executive director of UK athletics and member of the board for the London Marathon. She is also a member of Transport for London. Baroness Grey-Thompson became a Crossbench peer in March 2010.
She lives in the north east of England and is married with one daughter.
Lord Haskel
…is a Labour Peer – one of the three Peers appointed by John Smith in 1993. Before becoming a Peer he worked in the textile industry for 30 years. During this time he built up a textile technology business which was sold before he became a Peer.
A lifelong member of the Labour Party he was active in bringing the Labour Party and the management side of business and industry together. Since becoming a Peer he has dealt with science and technology, trade and industry from the front and back benches in both government and opposition.
He has served on many committees dealing with these matters and since 2002 has been a Deputy Speaker.
Lord Knight of Weymouth
…was the longest serving Schools minister in the last Labour government, he also served as Rural Affairs minister and Employment minister. He attended weekly Cabinet in the year running up to the 2010 General Election, and was made a life peer in the Dissolution Honours List after that 2010 election. Having co-ordinated Ed Balls Leadership Campaign he is now focussing on his role as Shadow Employment minister in the Lords, and as a consultant in education policy internationally. He is also on the board of the Arsenal Fanshare Society, is a vice-President of the LGA and is a trustee of the e-Learning Foundation. Jim is also on Twitter and Facebook.
Lord Dubs
…was born in Prague and came to Britain on a Kindertransport in 1939. He was MP for Battersea South and Battersea from 1979 to 1987 and was an Opposition Spokesperson for Home Affairs from 1983 to 1987. He was the Director of the Refugee Council from 1988 to 1995 and became a Labour peer in 1994. During his time in the House of Lords he has been a Whip, an Opposition Spokesperson for Energy and the Environment, and a Parliamentary Under Secretary for Northern Ireland. He was also the Chair of the Labour Party in the Lords from 2000 to 2005 and he currently sits on the Human Rights Joint Committee. He is also currently Chairman of the Independent Code Panel, Association of Energy Suppliers and the Road Safety Foundation, and has been a trustee of a number of voluntary organisations.
Lord Bates
…served as Member of Parliament for the Langbaurgh parliamentary constituency between 1992 and 1997. He held a number of ministerial posts including Senior Government Whip and H M Paymaster General. His interests include international relations – stemming from serving as Director of Research and Consultancy for Oxford Analytica between 1998 and 2005. Based in the North East of England he was Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party between 2006-2010 with special responsibility for Campaign North with Rt Hon William Hague MP.
Appointed to the House of Lords in 2008, he has held a number of Frontbench roles including; Communities and Local Government and Education. He is currently campaigning for a meaningful observance of the Olympic Truce at the London 2012 Games.
Lord Low
… was made a Companion of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to RNIB and disabled people’s rights in 2000 and was appointed as a Crossbench Peer in 2006.
He was educated at Worcester College for the Blind and at Oxford and Cambridge Universities. He taught Law and Criminology at Leeds University (1968-84), before moving to London as Director of the Disability Resource Team, then on to City University as Senior Research Fellow, where he carried out research on theories of disability, retiring in 2000.
He has been President of the European Blind Union (EBU) since 2003 and is a Vice-President of the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), having held the position of Chair from 2000-2009. In 2010 he took over as President of the International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment (ICEVI) and is President of the Disability Alliance. He was also President of SKILL (the National Bureau for Students with Disabilities) an organization he helped found, until 2011.
He is married to Jill and has two children, Peter and Philippa. His leisure interests include music, current affairs and an appreciation of fine wines.
Baroness Estelle Morris
… started her career in education as a teacher in an inner city multi racial comprehensive school where she taught for 18 years. In 1992 she entered Parliament and in 2001 became the Secretary of State for Education and Skills. She followed this with 2 years as a Minister at the Department of Culture Media and Sport and left Parliament in 2005.
Since then she has combined a career that includes senior posts both in education and the arts as well as being a member of the House of Lords. She is a trustee of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and The Roundhouse and Chair of the National Coalmining Museum.
Estelle’s roles in education have allowed her to see the education landscape from classroom teacher to senior policy maker and it is this breadth of experience that is now reflected in her comments and analysis of education. Amongst other posts she now works at the Institute of Effective Education at the University of York which aims to transform the relationship between education research and practice so that policy making and teaching can become more evidence based.
She is a regular contributor to Guardian Education.
Baroness Hussein-Ece
…was made a life peer in May 2010, taking the title Baroness Hussein-Ece of Highbury, in the London Borough of Islington. She sits on the Liberal Democrat benches. The first person from a Turkish background in the British Parliament.
Born in inner- city London to a Turkish immigrant family, she has been an active community worker, setting up the very first Turkish Women’s Centre, and Domestic Violence Project for Turkish and Kurdish Women, nearly 20 years ago. She worked in local government as a librarian, a community development officer, and a race equality officer, before moving on to work in the NHS, as chief officer of Haringey Community Health Council.
Baroness Hussein-Ece served as a local Councillor for 16 years. She was elected from 1994-2002 to Hackney Council, where she served as Deputy Leader of the Council and Islington Council between 2002-2010, where she held a number of senior roles, including Cabinet Member for Health & Adult Social Care, and Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
She was Non-Executive Director of Camden & Islington Mental Health and Social Care Trust, and served as a Board Member of Islington Primary Care Trust.
As well as a member of the Government’s successful ‘Black Asian and Minority Ethnic Women’s (BAME) Councillors Taskforce’, tasked with increasing the number of women councillors from a BAME background, and encouraging more women to take their place in public life in the UK.
Baroness Hussein-Ece was awarded the OBE in Jan 2009, for services to local government and was appointed a Commissioner to the Equality and Human Rights Commission in 2009.
She has 3 children.
Lord Rennard
…was born in Liverpool in 1960 and helped to run the Liberal election campaigns there when they ran the City Council. He was the most successful Liberal agent in Britain in 1983 when he worked on the Liberal campaign in the Liverpool Mossley Hill constituency of David Alton (now a crossbench peer).
He was a key member of many of the Liberal/SDP by-election teams and in 1989 he was awarded the MBE for political service. In that year, he was appointed as Director of Campaigns and Elections for the Liberal Democrats and became Chief Executive in 2003.
He oversaw 13 parliamentary by-election wins for the Liberal Democrats starting with Eastbourne in 1990, and the 1997 General election Liberal Democrat target seat campaign, which resulted in the party more than doubling its number of MPs from 18 to 46. With Lord Razzall as Campaign Chair he also directed the Liberal Democrats’ General Election campaigns in 2001 and 2005 which further increased the number of Lib Dem MPs to 52 and then 62.
This campaigning experience led Total Politics to say recently that, Chris Rennard is “probably the most formidable and feared political campaigner of the last 20 years.”
He was appointed as a member of the House of Lords on the recommendation of Lord Ashdown in 1999. He speaks for the Liberal Democrats on political & constitutional reform and communities & local government. He chaired the Commission on the Big Society established by voluntary sector chief executives. He is also Vice President of the Local Government Association (LGA).
Lord Ahmad
…was Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party from 2008 to 2010 and currently serves on the Government benches in the House of Lords.
A business graduate, he brings to Parliament extensive experience of financial services and the City spanning over almost 20 years. Joining NatWest in 1991, he spent almost 10 years in corporate banking and strategic roles before joining the US funds and investment house, Alliance Bernstein. He is currently Marketing and Strategy Director at a leading commodities firm, Sucden Financial, where he has been a member of executive team since 2004.
Lord Ahmad has been a member of the Conservative Party for over 16 years and has served in various roles at both a local and national level, as well as in an elected capacity as a councillor in Wimbledon since 2002. He has also held Cabinet level positions in the London Borough of Merton and was Deputy Chairman of the London Councils influential Transport and Environment Committee between 2006 and 2008.
Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale
…was the youngest and longest serving First Minister of Scotland – from 2001 to 2007 – and he was appointed to the House of Lords on 28 June 2010. Lord McConnell was the Prime Minister’s Special Representative for Peacebuilding from 2008 to 2010, and Education Adviser to the Clinton Hunter Development Initiative in Malawi and Rwanda.
He served as Scotland’s Minister for Education, Europe and External Affairs from 2000 to 2001 and he was Minister for Finance from 1999 to 2000. He was a Member of Scottish Parliament for Motherwell and Wishaw from 1999-2001. As First Minister, he refreshed Scotland’s International Image, established the Fresh Talent Initiative, and Scotland’s International Development policy, including the unique co-operation agreement with Malawi. He also introduced Scotland’s ban on smoking in public places and a national youth volunteering programme, Project Scotland.
Before being elected to the Scottish Parliament Lord McConnell was a Mathematics teacher, a member of the Scottish Constitutional Convention and General Secretary of the Scottish Labour Party. He is currently an Ambassador for Action for Children UK, a Patron for the Diana Awards and Chairperson for Radio Clyde Cash for Kids. He is also an Honorary Fellow of the Chinese Icebreakers, and has an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Stirling. He is a Board Member of UK -Japan 21st Century Group and a member of the Advisory Boards of the Global Poverty Project and the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy.
Lord McConnell was born in Irvine in 1960, and grew up on a sheep farm on the Isle of Arran. He was educated at Arran High School, and graduated from the University of Stirling.
Lord Foulkes of Cumnock
…is a Labour life peer. From 1979 to 2005, he was MP for Carrick Cumnock and Doon Valley in Ayrshire. From 1983 to 1997, he was successively a Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, Defence and Overseas Development. From 2007 to 2011 he was a Member of the Scottish Parliament for Lothians.
In 1997 he was appointed Under Secretary of State for International Development and in 2001 became Minister of State for Scotland. In 2002 he was appointed to the Privy Council, from 2004-05 was Chairman of Heart of Midlothian Football Club and was a member of the Intelligence and Security Committee from 2007 to 2010. He currently sits on the Lords EU Select Committee and its Sub Committee on Social Policies and Consumer Protection, is President of the Caribbean Council and a governor of Westminster Foundation for Democracy. He is also a member of the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy.
Lord Storey
…is a working Headteacher of a large inner-city primary school of 600 pupils, renowned for its enterprise education. Leader of Liverpool City Council for eight years (1998-2005) and Lord Mayor in 2009-10, he oversaw the regeneration of Liverpool. He successfully delivered a European Capital of Culture year in 2008 and was a founding member of Liverpool Vision, the UK’s first urban regeneration company. He oversaw the development of Liverpool’s Science Park, the Liverpool One development and the city’s Convention Centre and Arena. He is a passionate believer in the need to equip young people with the skills for the future and believes in the importance of city regions to be the power-houses of economic development.
Lord Berkeley
… is a civil engineer who worked on a number of major projects, ending up on the Channel Tunnel construction for 15 years. He entered the Lords as a hereditary peer on the death of his aunt and, following the removal of most hereditaries in 2001, was appointed a life peer.
His main interest is transport, and he is chairman of the Rail Freight Group, the representative body of the UK rail freight industry. He is also a Board member of the European Rail Freight Association, and a strong believer in the liberalisation of the European rail network. He is a public member of Network Rail, the grouping of around 100 people who seek to ensure proper governance of the company in lieu of shareholders. Living in Cornwall, he is a Harbour Commissioner for the port of Fowey.
In the Lords, he was an opposition Whip before the 1997 election, and served on the House of Lords European Committee. He now contributes regularly to debates and campaigns on transport issues, be they rail, public transport, cycling and maritime issues, where he is currently supporting the Isles of Scilly Council in seeking a lifeline all-year affordable transport service to the mainland. He is particularly interested in transport competition and state aids issues, and has promoted several private members bills on maritime issues, and is currently secretary of both the All Party Parliamentary Rail and Cycling Groups, and Treasurer of the All Party Maritime and Ports Group.
Baroness Goudie
… was appointed as a life peer in 1998. She has served on a number of Committees including; as Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Equality Group where she was actively involved in pushing through one of the Government’s major reforms, The Equality Act 2010 and also as Vice-Chair of the All-Party Group on Global Education.
Before entering the Lords she was a councilor for the London Borough of Brent Council. During her time there she worked to advance the Campaign for a Housing Aid Centre and a Law Centre, and she helped found a Housing Association for the Borough. In 1983, Baroness Goudie was campaign manager to Roy Hattersley (now a Lord) in his campaign to become deputy leader of the Labour Party.
Baroness Goudie is Chair of the Women Leaders’ Council to Fight Human Trafficking at the United Nations and is involved with the G8 and G20 promoting the role of women and children in the global economy. In March 2012, Baroness Goudie was appointed by Vital Voices Global Partnership and Bank of America as an ambassador for The Global Ambassadors Program. The initiative focuses on investing in emerging women leaders, with an aim of strengthening communities and improving economic growth. She is an expert in both global issues and corporate social responsibility.
In Scotland, Baroness Goudie has served on the Governing Board of Napier University where she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate degree in 1999. She was also a member of the Board of the Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice in Glasgow. Additionally, Baroness Goudie was included in the “List of Most Important Women in Scotland” published by the leading Scottish newspapers.
She is married with two sons and resides in London, England and Cape Cod, Massachusetts. She shares perspectives on her blog -www.baronessgoudie.com and can also be found on Twitter @BaronessGoudie.
Lord Faulkner of Worcester
…is a deputy speaker of the House of Lords. He served as a minister in the government whips’ office as a Lord in Waiting, speaking on transport, energy and climate change, and Wales 2009-10. He has been a life peer since 1999, and takes a particular interest in transport (especially railways).
Prior to entering Parliament he ran his own public affairs and PR consultancy, working as an adviser to the British Railways Board for over 25 years, and as first deputy chairman of The Football Trust.
He is a trustee of the Science Museum, serving as chair of the advisory board of the Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester, and also of the National Football Museum. Richard Faulkner is a former chair of the Railway Heritage Committee, and was responsible for persuading the government to retain its powers of designation and transfer them to the Science Museum.
He is an officer in a number of all-party groups, including Taiwan, Argentina, Norway and Australia and New Zealand. He was the founder and is the chair of the all-party war heritage group. He has homes in Worcester (where he is a director of Worcester Live and a fellow of the university of Worcester) and London. Married for 44 years, he has two daughters and six grand-children. Click here – http://www.lordfaulkner.net/ – for more.
Baroness Quin
… was a Labour MP from 1987, representing Gateshead East and then Gateshead East and Washington West. Prior to that, after working as a Lecturer in French and Politics at Bath and Durham Universities, she was MEP for Tyne and Wear. In the first Blair government she was, successively, Minister of State in the Home Office, the Foreign Office (Minister for Europe) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. She became a life peer in 2006.
In the House of Lords she has served as a Member of the Constitution Committee and as front-bench spokesperson for the Environment. Her hobbies include hiking and music. She is President of the Northumbrian Pipers’ Society and she has acted as a volunteer City Tourist Guide for the city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne since 1977.
Baroness Perry
…read Philosophy at Cambridge, and left for North America with her new husband immediately after graduation. After some years lecturing in Philosophy in Canada and the USA, she returned to the UK, and later became one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Schools, rising to Chief Inspector in 1981, eleven years before the creation of OFSTED. Her later career included Vice-Chancellor of South Bank University (the first woman appointed Vice-Chancellor in the UK), and President of Lucy Cavendish College in the University of Cambridge. She was made a Life Peer in 1991, and chairs the back-bench group for education in the House of Lords.
Baroness Thomas
… worked in the Liberal, then Liberal Democrat, Whips Office in the House of Lords for nearly 30 years before being made a Peer in 2006. She had previously worked in choir schools, among other places, and was an election agent three times.
She was diagnosed in 1991 with adult onset Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy, and now uses a rollator to walk. In the Lords she chairs the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee and sits on the Procedure Committee. She speaks in the House mainly on welfare and health issues.
She is President of the Winchester Liberal Democrats, a Trustee of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, a Patron of Winchester Churches Nightshelter, Thrive (gardening for disabled people) and Avonbrook Projects Abroad, and a Vice-President of the Lloyd George Society.
Baroness Lister of Burtersett
… became a Labour peer in February 2011 and is currently a member of the Joint Committee on Human Rights. She is Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at Loughborough University and is a former Director of the Child Poverty Action Group, and is now its Honorary President. She is currently chair of the management committee of the pressure group Compass, a vice-chair of the Fair Pay Network and on the board of the Smith Institute.
She served on the Commission on Social Justice, the Opsahl Commission into the Future of Northern Ireland, the Commission on Poverty, Participation and Power, the Fabian Commission on Life Chances and Child Poverty and the National Equality Panel.
She is a founding Academician of the Academy for Learned Societies for the Social Sciences and was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2009. She received a lifetime achievement award from the Social Policy Association in 2010. She has published widely around poverty, welfare state reform, gender and citizenship.
Baroness Scott of Needham Market
…has been a Liberal Democrat Peer since May 2000. Her background is in local government and transport, having served as an elected Member of Suffolk County Council between 1991 and 2005, on the Board of the Commission for Integrated Transport and on the Audit Commission. Her private sector experience includes being on the Board of the Lloyds Register – the first woman in its 250 year history, and on the Board of Anglia Television.
She served as President of the Liberal Democrats from 2008 to 2010. Her current interests in the Lords include transport and housing and she is a Member of the EU Select Committee. She is also Chair of the England Volunteering Development Council and takes a keen interest in matters to do with volunteering.
Lord Hodgson
…was raised to the Peerage as Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts, a small village in Shropshire where he was brought up. He was MP for Walsall North 1976 – 9 – his Opponent was John Stonehouse who disappeared to Australia. He worked for the Conservative Party in various roles in a voluntary capacity becoming Deputy Chairman of the Party 1997-2000.
He has had an active business career primarily in financial services and his current directorships are in private equity, insurance broking and brewing!
He has four children – none of whom are interested in politics! – and a wife who is and does a great deal of work campaigning for women’s rights around the world.
Lord Browne of Madingley
…is a Crossbench peer. He holds degrees from Cambridge and Stanford Universities. He joined BP in 1966 and he joined the board in 1991. He was appointed Group Chief Executive in 1995 and held that position until 2007. He was voted Most Admired CEO by Management Today from 1999 – 2002.
Lord Browne is currently a Partner and Managing Director of Riverstone Holdings LLC, Fellow and former President of the Royal Academy of Engineering (2006-2011), a Fellow of the Royal Society and a foreign member of the US Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was appointed a Trustee of the Tate Gallery in 2007 and Chairman of the Trustees in 2009.
He was appointed the UK Government’s Lead Non-Executive Board member in 2010. He is Chairman of the Trustees of the Queen Elizabeth II Prize for Engineering, Chairman of the International Advisory Board of the Blavatnik School Government at Oxford University and a member of a variety of other trusts and boards. He chaired the Independent Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance (the Browne Review, 2010).
He was knighted in 1998 and made a life peer in 2001. His interests include climate change, energy policy, civil service, trade and industry, engineering and higher education.
Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne
… has been a Liberal Democrat Peer since 1997 and currently is a member of the UK delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. For two terms from 1999-2009, she was a Member of the European Parliament for Southeast England, where she was Vice-Chairman of the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, was its Rapporteur on Romania, Iraq, Kashmir, and established its first ever Delegation for Relations with Iraq in 2008. She was also, in 2006, Chief Observer for the EU’s Election Observation Mission to Yemen and has monitored several elections in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Prior to this, she was a MP for Torridge and West Devon from 1987-1997, first for the Conservative Party, during which time she served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Ministers of State at the Home Office; the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food; and at the Treasury, and then as a Liberal Democrat MP.
She also has founded and chairs the AMAR International Charitable Foundation, which provides healthcare and education in the Middle East; the Iraq Britain Business Council; and the Asociatia Children’s High Level Group, which works with children in Eastern Europe. In a previous life she was also Director of Fundraising for Save The Children.
Lord Clement-Jones
… is the London Managing Partner of DLA Piper, the global Law firm.
Tim was made a life peer in 1998 and until July 2004 was the Liberal Democrat Health Spokesman. Thereafter until the General Election 2010 he was Liberal Democrat Spokesman on Culture, Media and Sport in the House of Lords. He was the Treasurer of the Liberal Democrats from 2005-2010. He is Deputy Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Groups on China, Turkey, the UAE, Intellectual Property and Ovarian Cancer.
He was formerly the Chairman of Crime Concern. Until its merger with Macmillan Cancer Support in 2008, he was a Trustee of Cancerbackup, the UK cancer information charity founded by his late wife, Dr Vicky Clement-Jones FRCP. He is Hon President of Ambitious About Autism and an Honorary Fellow of the London School of Pharmacy, UCL. He is a Member of the Council of University College London and is on the advisory Board of the College of Medicine. He is also a Trustee of the Barbican Centre.
Lord Warner
…is a Labour member of the House of Lords. He has served on its Science and Technology Committee; a Select Committee reviewing adoption law; and the Joint Select Committee on the draft Care and Support Bill. He was a member of an independent Commission on the Funding of Care and Support that reported in 2011 to the Coalition government with reform proposals. He was a Health Minister in the Blair government and worked on NHS reform amongst other topics. He has been senior policy adviser to the Home Secretary; and set up and chaired the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales. As Kent’s Director of Social Services he was heavily involved in reform of community care. He has chaired voluntary organisations and the National Council of Voluntary Organisations, as well as working as a management consultant and advising private companies. Earlier in his career he was a senior civil servant in the Department of Health and Social Security. He has recently published a book about reforming the NHS entitled “A Suitable Case for Treatment.” His interests are theatre, cinema, reading, exercise, food, travel and sports.
Baroness Valentine
…was made a life peer in 2005 and sits on the Crossbenches. She is Chief Executive of London First which campaigns to “make London the best City in the world in which to do business”. She is also a Non-Executive Director of Peabody, the housing charity and sits on the House of Lords Committee which provides pre-legislative scrutiny of European infrastructure proposals.
Prior to London First, Jo worked in corporate finance and planning at Barings and BOC Group. She also established and ran ‘The Blackburn Partnership’, a public-private regeneration partnership, in 1988 and was a National Lottery Commissioner from 2000 to 2005. Jo is an Honorary Fellow of St Hugh’s College Oxford and has an Honorary Degree from Roehampton University.
Jo is married with two daughters, 19 and 21. The family has travelled to many far flung places, including the Pribilof Islands off Alaska, Mongolia and Madagascar. Her husband, Simon Acland, is an author, and her daughters are at Edinburgh and Nottingham Universities studying modern languages and physics respectively.
Baroness Berridge
… became Baroness Berridge of the Vale of Catmose in the County of Rutland on 20th January 2011. Within this role Elizabeth intends to play an active part in the community of Rutland, as well as working on projects relating to prisons, foreign affairs and multi-culturalism.
Born and educated in the small county of Rutland, Elizabeth attended Vale of Catmose College comprehensive school (from which she took her title) and Rutland College. Elizabeth then studied law at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and undertook barrister’s training at the Inns of Court School of Law in London. She has lived in Trinidad and Tobago and Ghana, and remains keenly interested in both countries and their regions. When not at the House of Lords, Elizabeth enjoys swimming and tennis, going to the cinema and being involved in her local church.
Baroness Randerson
… is a Liberal Democrat Peer. She is Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Wales and also speaks on Northern Ireland in the Lords. She entered the Lords in January 2011 following 12 years as a Member of the Welsh Assembly, representing Cardiff Central.
From 2000 to 2003 she was Minister for Culture in the Welsh Lib Dem/Labour Partnership Government and for a year she was Acting Deputy First Minister for Wales. She was thus the first female Lib Dem in the UK ever to become a Minister. From 1983 to 2000 she was a member of Cardiff City Council, from 1995 to 1999 she led the Opposition. By profession she was a Further Education lecturer in Business Studies and Economics. In her spare time she enjoys travel, reading, gardening and looking after her grandchildren.
Any members of the House of Lords who are interested in getting involved in this blog can contact Beccy Allen at beccy@hansardsociety.org.uk
