Janet Fookes, Baroness Fookes

Janet Fookes, Baroness Fookes (2011)

Janet Evelyn Fookes, Baroness Fookes DBE DL (born February 21, 1936 ) is a British Conservative Party politician who was a member of the House of Commons for 37 years and has been a Life Peeress member of the House of Lords since 1997 and its deputy spokeswoman since 2002 is.

Life

Local politician and member of the House of Commons

Janet Fookes worked as a teacher between 1958 and 1970 after attending school and studying . Her political career began in local politics and was between 1960 and 1961 and again from 1963 to 1970 member of the council of the Borough of Hastings , in which she was last between 1967 and 1970 also chairman of the education committee.

In the general election on June 18, 1970 , Janet Fookes was elected as a candidate for the Conservative Party for the first time as a member of the House of Commons and initially represented the constituency of Merton and Morden and after the election of February 28, 1974 until the elections on May 1 May 1997 the constituency of Plymouth Drake .

As a committed animal rights activist , she began working for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) in 1973 and was a member of its advisory board until 1992 and was also chair of the RSPCA from 1979 to 1981.

Parliamentary engagement and deputy speaker of the lower house

During her 37 years in parliament, she was Chair of the Subcommittee on Education, Arts and Home Affairs of the House of Commons Committee on Expenditure from 1975 to 1979, and a member of the House of Commons Speaker Group of Committee Chairs from 1976 to 1997. After she was secretary from 1979 to 1985, she acted as vice-chair of the non-partisan group for mental hygiene between 1985 and 1992 and at the same time as chair of the parliamentary group for animal welfare. It was also during this period that her bills on sexual offenses ( Sexual Offenses Act 1985 ) and against attack dogs ( Dangerous Dogs Act 1987 ) fell.

She was also a member of the advisory board of the Stonham Housing Association between 1980 and 1992 and of the advisory board of the SSAFA Forces Help charity from 1980 to 1997 . Ms. Fookes was a member of the House of Commons Committee on Home Affairs from 1983 to 1992 and also served as a member of the Commonwealth of Nations Commission on War Cemeteries from 1987 to 1997 and as a member of the Board of Directors of University College Plymouth St Mark & ​​St John from 1989 to 2004 .

For her many years of political and social engagement, she was ennobled in 1989 as Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire and from then on bore the suffix "Dame".

At the end of her membership in the House of Commons , Ms. Fookes became Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons on May 6, 1992 and held this office until she left the House of Commons on May 14, 1997. At the same time, she was second deputy chairman of the influential Committee of Ways and Means and deputy chairman of the committees.

House of Lords member and deputy speaker of the House of Lords

After her departure from the House of Commons, Janet Fookes was raised to life peeress by a letters patent dated September 30, 1997 as Baroness Fookes , of Plymouth in the County of Devon. Shortly thereafter, she was introduced as a member of the House of Lords .

Baroness Fookes, the 2000 honorary citizen ( Freeman ) of Plymouth was, since 2001, member of the Parliament project for the Armed Forces and Deputy Lieutenant of East Sussex . Since 2002 she has also been Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords and Deputy Chairwoman of the House of Lords Committees and, between 2003 and 2007, also Chairwoman of the House of Lords' Refreshment Committee .

On July 4, 2006, Baroness Fookes, who has been Governor of Kelly College in Tavistock since 2002 and President of the War Widows Association in 2006, ran for the office of Lord Speaker , but was defeated by Helene Hayman, Baroness Hayman .

Since 2010 she has also been a member of the Upper House Committee for Communication.

Web links

• Entry on Parliament's homepage (accessed on November 3, 2012)
• janet Fookes at Hansard (English)
• Entry in They Work For You (accessed November 3, 2012)
• Entry in They Work For You (accessed November 3, 2012)
• Biography in Debrett's (accessed November 3, 2012)