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Volume No. 1 Issue No. 19 - April 22, 2002
Dominica Born British MP to Visit
Rt. Honorable The Baroness Scotland of Asthal QC Second Visit
by: Thomson Fontaine
Dominica is anxiously awaiting the
visit of Baroness Scotland of Asthal QC, Minister of the Lord Chancellors office and the first
black female British government minister. While in Dominica, she will meet with Prime Minister
Pierre Charles and other government officials.
Born in Dominica in 1956, Patricia Scotland later migrated to the United
Kingdom where she attended university and distinguished herself as a lawyer before
entering the political arena, where she has served two terms of government for Labour-
firstly in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as Foreign Office Minister and now in
her 'natural' home department-the Lord Chancellor's Office. There she is effectively
number two to Lord Irvine of Largs and the lead minister on immigration and asylum
matters, legal aid, legal services and the development of Civil Law in the UK.
In 1991 she made legal history becoming the first black female QC (Queens
Counsel) at the age of 35. She was made a bencher of the Middle Temple in 1997,
becoming a judge in 1999, and raised to the Privy Council in 2001.
She is also a member of the bar in Antigua and Dominica. In 1997 she was created
a peer as Baroness Scotland of Asthal, in the County of Oxfordshire. The Baroness is
considered to be a rising star in the Tony Blair administration who is impeccably well
connected, being close to two of Prime Portrait in The National Minister Blair�s
Gallery confidants: Charles Falconer (Britain�s Solicitor General) and Derry Irvine
(Lord Chancellor).
Baroness Scotland has received numerous awards and commendations including an
honorary degree from the University of Westminster for services to law, government,
social justice and International affairs. Among her other accomplishments: Chair of
HMG Caribbean Advisory Group; Dominican Representative of the Council of British
Commonwealth Ex-Services League; Member of the Lawyers� Christian Fellowship; Member
of the BBC World Service Consultative Group Lifeline (Trinidad & Tobago); Honorary
Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge, Member of The Millennium Commission; Patron of
the Women and Children�s Welfare Fund. She has specialized in family and public law
and has chaired and represented parties in a number of major inquiries relating to
Child Abuse, Mental Health and Housing.
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