Profile

Labour Peer

Entered the House of Lords on 17 July 2024

Previously MP for Redditch until 12 April 2010 — General election (stood again)

Entered the House of Commons on 1 May 1997 — General election

Also represented Redditch

• Personal website
• Wikipedia page
• BBC News profile

Expenses

• Expenses from 2004 to 2009

Topics of interest

• Justice
• Communities and Local Government
• Energy and Climate Change
• Business
• Innovation and Skills
• Transport
• Magistrates: Age
• Local Strategic Partnerships: Members
• Renewable Energy
• Hang Gliding and Paragliding: EU Action
• Horizon

Currently held offices

• Lords Spokesperson (Equalities) (since 8 Oct 2024)
• Minister of State (Education) (since 5 Jul 2024)

Other offices held in the past

• Home Secretary (28 Jun 2007 to 10 Jun 2009)
• The Secretary of State for the Home Department (28 Jun 2007 to 5 Jun 2009)
• Chief Whip ( 8 May 2006 to 28 Jun 2007)
• Chief Whip ( 5 May 2006 to 28 Jun 2007)
• Minister of State (Schools and 14-19 Learners), Department for Education and Skills (17 Jun 2005 to 8 May 2006)
• Minister of State (Schools), Department for Education and Skills (11 May 2005 to 17 Jun 2005)
• Minister of State (Education and Skills) (Schools and 14-19 Learners) (10 May 2005 to 5 May 2006)
• Minister of State (Industry and the Regions and Deputy Minister for Women), Department of Trade and Industry (13 Jun 2003 to 11 May 2005)
• Minister of State (Industry and the Regions) and Deputy Minister (Women) (13 Jun 2003 to 6 May 2005)
• Minister of State, Department of Health (11 Jun 2001 to 13 Jun 2003)
• Minister of State (Department of Health) (11 Jun 2001 to 13 Jun 2003)
• Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education and Employment) (29 Jul 1999 to 10 Jun 2001)
• Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Education and Employment (28 Jul 1999 to 11 Jun 2001)
• Member, Treasury Committee ( 9 Nov 1998 to 29 Nov 1999)

Public bill committees (Sittings attended)

• Education and Inspections Bill Committee (15 out of 21)
• Sex Discrimination (Clubs and Other Private Associations) Bill Committee (1 out of 1)
• Companies (Audit, Investigations and Community Enterprise) Bill Committee (1 out of 1)
• Civil Partnership Bill Committee (5 out of 5)
• Community Care (Delayed Discharges etc.) Bill Committee (3 out of 3)
• Adoption and Children Bill Committee (20 out of 23)
• Special Educational Needs and Disability Bill Committee (7 out of 7)

Recent appearances

• State-funded Schools: Special Educational Needs - Question 11 Dec 2024

  My Lords, the majority of children and young people with special educational needs have their needs met in mainstream schools. We are committed to ensuring that schools have the resources and expertise to identify needs earlier and support all pupils to succeed. We are working with experts, parents and carers to strengthen accountability and ensure inclusivity, through reforms to Ofsted...

• State-funded Schools: Special Educational Needs - Question 11 Dec 2024

  The noble Lord is absolutely right about the need to identify early. We have measures in place to help teachers with early identification and support, particularly for the teaching of reading, including the phonics screening check and statutory assessments in key stages 1 and 2, the English hubs programme, the reading framework, an updated list of high-quality phonics programmes for schools,...

• State-funded Schools: Special Educational Needs - Question 11 Dec 2024

  Ollie is very lucky to have the noble Baroness as his great-aunt. But she raises an important point about the speed with which it is possible to carry out assessments. It is for that reason that we are supporting local authority educational psychology services by investing over £20 million to train 400 more educational psychologists, because they play a particularly important role in...

More of Baroness Smith of Malvern’s recent appearances