Jean Ann Corston, Baroness Corston, (; born 5 May 1942), is a British politician and

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for

Bristol East Bristol East is a constituency recreated in 1983 covering the eastern part of the City of Bristol, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Kerry McCarthy of the Labour Party. Constituency profile Bristol East cove ...

from 1992 to 2005, during which time she served as Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party from 2001 to 2005.

Early life

Jean Ann Parkin went to Yeovil Girls' High School (now the

Westfield Community School Community Unit School District 300 is a school district headquartered in Algonquin, Illinois, United States, a suburb of Chicago. The current superintendent of schools is Susan Harkin. The district is the 6th largest school district in the St ...

) on Stiby Road in

Yeovil Yeovil () is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Somerset, England. It is close to Somerset's southern border with Dorset, west of London, south of Bristol, west of Sherborne and east of Taunton. The population of the bui ...

and the

Somerset College of Arts and Technology Bridgwater and Taunton College is a further education college based in the heart of Somerset, England, with main centres in Bridgwater, Taunton and Cannington, Somerset, Cannington. It educates approximately 3000 students between the ages of 16� ...

. She worked at the

Inland Revenue The Inland Revenue was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government responsible for the collection of direct taxation, including income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, corporation ta ...

. At the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

, she gained a

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

in 1989. From 1989 to 1990, she studied at the

Inns of Court School of Law The City Law School is a law school in London, England, and it is one of the six schools of City, University of London. The law school traces its origins to the Inns of Court School of Law (ICSL), which was founded in 1852. The ICSL became par ...

. She also studied with the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...

. She became a barrister.

Parliamentary career

Corston was Member of Parliament (MP) for

from April 1992 to 2005. Until stepping down at the 2005 general election, she was chair of the

Parliamentary Labour Party The Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) is the parliamentary group of the Labour Party in the British House of Commons. The group comprises the Labour members of parliament as a collective body. Commentators on the British Constitution sometimes ...

, the first woman ever to hold that position. She was the first Labour MP to ask a question of

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...

at his first

Prime Minister's Questions Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs, officially known as Questions to the Prime Minister, while colloquially known as Prime Minister's Question Time) is a constitutional convention (political custom), constitutional convention in the United Kingd ...

on 21 May 1997. On 13 May 2005 it was announced that she would be created a

, and on 29 June 2005 she was created ''Baroness Corston, of

St George Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the R ...

, in the County and City of Bristol''. She was commissioned by the

Home Office The Home Office (HO), also known (especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament) as the Home Department, is the United Kingdom's interior ministry. It is responsible for public safety and policing, border security, immigr ...

, 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. The report outlines "the need for a distinct radically different, visibly-led, strategic, proportionate, holistic, woman-centred, integrated approach". The report is known as the Corston Report and has largely informed government policy on the matter. Progress and improvements by local probation services, the

National Probation Service The Probation Service (formerly the National Probation Service) for England and Wales is a statutory criminal justice service, mainly responsible for the supervision of offenders in the community and the provision of reports to the criminal cour ...

, Her Majesty's

Prison service His Majesty's Prison Service (HMPS) is a part of HM Prison and Probation Service (formerly the National Offender Management Service), which is the part of His Majesty's Government charged with managing most of the prisons within England and ...

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 the

House of Lords Reform Act 2014 The House of Lords Reform Act 2014 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act was a private member's bill. It received royal assent on 14 May 2014. The Act allows members of the House of Lords to retire or resign – actions previous ...

because of non-attendance in the preceding session of Parliament.

Personal life

She married first Christopher Corston in 1961 with whom she had a son and daughter. Her partner from 1980 until he died in 2009 was Peter Townsend, the sociologist. The couple married in Bristol in 1985.

References

External links

*
BBC: City MP to stand down at election

see link from peers' section to biography
The Corston Report: a review of women with particular vulnerabilities in the criminal justice system

''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). Guardian article on alternatives to prison for women offenders.BBC News article on community sentencing for women instead of prison sentences.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Corston, Jean Corston, Baroness 1942 births Living people Alumni of the London School of Economics Alumni of the Open University Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Life peeresses created by Elizabeth II Life peers created by Elizabeth II Labour Party (UK) life peers Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of Parliament for Bristol Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom People from Yeovil Politics of Bristol Transport and General Workers' Union-sponsored MPs UK MPs 1992–1997 UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 20th-century British women politicians 21st-century British women politicians 20th-century English women 21st-century English women politicians Peers removed under the House of Lords Reform Act 2014