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Biographies
of the current Law Officers
The Attorney
General and the Solicitor General are the Government's chief
legal advisers, advising on domestic and international law.
They also have public interest roles, for example in relation
to criminal cases and contempt of court proceedings. In England
and Wales, they superintend the work of the Crown Prosecution
Service and the Serious Fraud Office and in Northern Ireland
they superintend the functions of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
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The
ATTORNEY GENERAL
The Rt Hon the Baroness Scotland QC
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Appointed as Attorney General on 28th June 2007 from the Home Office, Baroness Scotland previously had responsibility for Respect, anti-social behaviour policy, crime reduction strategy, youth crime, all legislation in the Lords, domestic violence, the Office for Criminal Justice Reform and criminal law, race equality, international issues and was also the ministerial adviser on legal affairs.
Previously she was Parliamentary Secretary at the Lord Chancellor's Department from 2001 to 2003, and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1999 to 2001. She was also an Alternate UK Government Representative of the European Convention from 2002 to 2003.
After graduating with LLB Hons (London), Patricia Scotland was called to the Bar, Middle Temple, in 1977, received Silk in 1991 and became a Bencher in 1997.
She is a member of the Bar of Antigua and the Commonwealth of Dominica. She is an Honorary Fellow of The Society for Advanced Legal Studies, Wolfson College, Cambridge and of Cardiff University. She has an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Westminster and the University of Buckingham.
Baroness Scotland is a Dame of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George. She is a patron of The Margaret Beaufort Institute, GAP, and is a member of the Thomas More Society and the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship.
She is a former member of the Bar Public Relations Committee, Race Relations Committee, Professional Conduct Committee, Judicial Studies Board Ethnic Minority Advisory Committee, House of Commons Working Party on Child Abduction, Legal Advisory Panel on the National Consumer Council, the Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services and the National Advisory Committee on Mentally Disordered Offenders.
In addition, she was formerly one of Her Majesty's Commissioners for Racial Equality, a former Honorary President of the Trinity Hall Law Society, a former Chairman of the ILEA Disciplinary Tribunal, a member of the BBC World Service Consultative Group, Chairman of HMG Caribbean Advisory Group, the Dominican Representative of the Council of The British Commonwealth Ex-Service league and served as a member of the Millennium Commission from 1994-99.
She has specialised in family and public law and has chaired and represented parties in a number of Inquiries relating to Child Abuse, Mental Health and Housing. She was voted Black Woman of the Year (Law) 1992.
She was founder member and former Head of Chambers of 1 Gray's Inn Square.
Baroness Scotland was created a peer as Baroness Scotland of Asthal, of Asthal in the County of Oxfordshire, in 1997 and was raised to the Privy Council in July 2001.
She married in 1985 and has two sons. She was born in Dominica in 1955.
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The
SOLICITOR GENERAL
Vera Baird QC MP |
Vera Baird QC MP was appointed as the Solicitor General on the 2nd July 2007 by the Prime Minister.
The Solicitor General is the Attorney General's deputy. Under the Law Officers Act 1997, the Solicitor General, as deputy, can discharge any of the functions of the Attorney General for England and Wales, and of the Attorney General for Northern Ireland.
The Attorney General fulfils the role of chief legal adviser to the government and is superintendent of prosecuting authorities within England, Wales and Northern Ireland. These are the Crown Prosecution Service, the Serious Fraud Office, the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office and the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland. The Attorney General also has overall responsibility for the Treasury Solicitor’s department and has functions as guardian of the public interest.
In 2006 Ms Baird was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary in the Department for Constitutional Affairs, now Ministry of Justice. Her responsibilities included the reform of the legal aid system. She was also the minister responsible for equalities, civil justice, social exclusion, women and sentencing. She was previously Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Home Secretary.
Vera Baird was born in Oldham. She was widowed in 1979 and has two stepsons. She attended Chadderton Grammar School followed by Northumbria University where she obtained an LLB. In 1975 she was called to the Bar in Gray’s Inn. In 1983 she obtained a BA in Literature and Modern History and is currently working on a MPhil at Teesside University.
From 1999 – 2002 she was a Human Rights Law Trainer for the Criminal Bar Association. In 1999 she was a visiting Law Fellow at St Hilda’s College, Oxford where she undertook research on reforming the law on homicide. She is now an Honorary Fellow of St. Hilda’s and of Teesside University. Ms Baird is also a visiting Professor at London South Bank University.
As a key member of Michael Mansfield’s chambers at Tooks Court since 1986, Ms Baird has taken part in some of the key civil liberties cases. She successfully defended the four women charged with criminal damage to a Hawk aircraft destined for bombing East Timor, and has worked on cases about almost every protest movement in the last two decades from Greenham Common to Menwith Hill. She represented Emma Humphreys in her ground-breaking case about the law on battered women who kill their violent partners, and has represented many men and women on every kind of serious crime, at the Old Bailey, the Court of Appeal and the House of Lords. In 2000 she became a QC. She can no longer practice as a barrister since becoming a Minister in 2006.
Ms Baird contested the Berwick seat at the 1983 General Election and became the member for Redcar following the General Election on 7th June 2001.
She was a member of the following: Parliamentary Joint Select Committee on Human Rights 2001-2003, Work and Pensions: 2003-2005, Corruption Bill 2003, Armed Forces Bill: 2005-2006. She was also a member of various Standing Committees including: Proceeds of Crime Bill 2001-02, Criminal Justice Bill 2003; Domestic Violence Bill 2003-04, Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill 2005.
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