The Baroness Corston | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2020 | |
| Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party | |
| In office 11 July 2001 – 24 May 2005 | |
| Leader | Tony Blair |
| Preceded by | Clive Soley |
| Succeeded by | Ann Clwyd |
| Member of Parliament forBristol East | |
| In office 9 April 1992 – 11 April 2005 | |
| Preceded by | Jonathan Sayeed |
| Succeeded by | Kerry McCarthy |
| Member of theHouse of Lords Lord Temporal | |
| In office 29 June 2005 – 9 July 2024 Life peerage | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Jean Ann Parkin (1942-05-05)5 May 1942 (age 83) Kingston upon Hull, England |
| Political party | Labour |
| Spouse(s) | Christopher Corston Peter Townsend |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater | London School of Economics,Open University |
Jean Ann Corston, Baroness Corston,PC (née Parkin; born 5 May 1942), is a British politician andlife peer who served asMember of Parliament (MP) forBristol East from 1992 to 2005, during which time she served asChair of the Parliamentary Labour Party from 2001 to 2005.
Jean Ann Parkin went to Yeovil Girls' High School (now theWestfield Community School) on Stiby Road inYeovil and theSomerset College of Arts and Technology. She worked at theInland Revenue. At theLondon School of Economics, she gained aBachelor of Laws in 1989. From 1989 to 1990, she studied at theInns of Court School of Law. She also studied with theOpen University. She became a barrister.
Corston was Member of Parliament (MP) forBristol East from April 1992 to 2005. Until stepping down at the2005 general election, she was chair of theParliamentary Labour Party, the first woman ever to hold that position. She was the first Labour MP to ask a question ofTony Blair at his firstPrime Minister's Questions on 21 May 1997.
On 13 May 2005 it was announced that she would be created alife peer, and on 29 June 2005 she was createdBaroness Corston, ofSt George, in theCounty and City of Bristol.[1]
She was commissioned by theHome Office, to conduct a report into vulnerable women in the criminal justice system of the United Kingdom, published in March 2007. It explores the idea that if a lot of women who are in prison are mentally ill, whether they should be there at all.[2] The report outlines "the need for a distinct radically different, visibly-led, strategic, proportionate, holistic, woman-centred, integrated approach". The report is known as theCorston Report[3] and has largely informed government policy on the matter.[4] Progress and improvements by local probation services, theNational Probation Service, Her Majesty'sPrison service and the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) are regularly compared to the recommendations in this report.
Corston ceased to be a member of the House of Lords on 9 July 2024 under theHouse of Lords Reform Act 2014 because of non-attendance in the preceding session of Parliament.[5]
She married first Christopher Corston in 1961 with whom she had a son and daughter. Her partner from 1980 until he died in 2009 wasPeter Townsend, the sociologist. The couple married in Bristol in 1985.[6]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forBristol East 1992–2005 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party 2001–2005 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
