Jean Corston, Baroness Corston

Jean Ann Corston, Baroness Corston, PC (born 5 May 1942, Jean Ann Parkin) is a Labour politician in the United Kingdom.

Early life

She went to Yeovil Girls' High School (now the Westfield Community School) on "Stiby Road" in Yeovil and the Somerset College of Arts and Technology. She worked at the Inland Revenue. At the LSE, she gained an LLB in 1989. From 1989-90, she studied at the Inns of Court School of Law. She also studied with the Open University. She became a barrister.

Parliamentary career

Corston was Member of Parliament for Bristol East from April 1992 to 2005. Until stepping down at the 2005 general election, she was chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party, the first woman ever to hold that position.

On 13 May 2005 it was announced that she would be created a life peer, and on 29 June 2005 she was created Baroness Corston, of St George in the County and City of Bristol.

She was commissioned by the Home Office, to conduct a report into vulnerable women in the criminal justice system of the United Kingdom, published in March 2007. The report outlines "the need for a distinct radically different, visibly-led, strategic, proportionate, holistic, woman-centred, integrated approach".

Personal life

She married Christopher Corston in 1961, and her present partner (Peter Townsend, the social economist) in 1985. They have a son and daughter.

External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/bristol/somerset/4196877.stm BBC: City MP to stand down at election]
* [http://www.parliament.uk] see link from peers' section to biography
* [http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/corston-report/ The Corston Report: a review of women with particular vulnerabilities in the criminal justice system]
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2006/may/03/politics.crime "Guardian" interview by Alison Benjamin, 3 May 2006: "Reasonable redress: Nine out of 10 women prisoners have been convicted of non-violent offences. Most are mothers and many are vulnerable. Will a government review urge alternatives to incarceration?" (with Curriculum Vitae).]