Janet Whitaker, Baroness Whitaker

The Right Honourable
The Baroness Whitaker
Official Portrait of Baroness Whitaker
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office
19 June 1999
Life Peerage
Personal details
Born
Janet Alison Whitaker

(1936-02-20) 20 February 1936 (age 88)
NationalityBritish
Political partyLabour
SpouseBenjamin Whitaker
Alma mater

Janet Alison Whitaker, Baroness Whitaker (born 20 February 1936) is a British politician with the Labour Party.

Born Janet Alison Stewart, she is the daughter of Alan Harrison Stewart and Ella Stewart (née Saunders). She was educated at Nottingham High School for Girls, Girton College, Cambridge in the United Kingdom and at Bryn Mawr College and Harvard University in the United States.[1] In 1964 she married Benjamin Whitaker (1934–2014) a barrister, author and human rights activist, who served a single term as Labour Party MP for Hampstead from 1966 to 1970.[1]

Whitaker began her career in publishing. She was a Commissioning Editor with the English publishing house Andre Deutsch Ltd from 1961 until 1968.[2] From 1974 to 1996 she was with the Employment Department Group.[2] She was then employed by the Commonwealth Secretariat as a consultant for the Commission for Racial Equality (1996–98).[2] She was then with Independent Television Commission (ITC) starting in 1999,[2] serving as the Deputy Chair from 2001 to 2003. During that time, she was a consultant to the Committee of Reference for Friends Provident insurance company from 1999 to 1998.[2]

In June 1999, she was included in Tony Blair's new list of working peers[3] in recognition of a career in publishing and in the civil service.[4] She was created a Life Peer on 5 August 1999 taking the title Baroness Whitaker, of Beeston in the County of Nottinghamshire.[5] She is Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Gypsies, Travellers and Roma and President of Friends, Families and Travellers and of the Advisory Council for the Education of Romany and other Travellers

Whitaker joined the House of Lords on 5 August 1999.[2] Since then she has sat on committees including Home Affairs, Human Rights, and Intergovernmental Organisations.[2] Her focus within the UK is East Sussex and Nottingham.[2] She was an International Development Liaison Peer from 1999 to 2007[6] and served as Vice-Chair of the UK Parliamentary Labour Party International Development Committee.[7] She chaired the Design in Public Procurement Inquiry (2009)[6] and the Design Education Inquiry (2011).[6] Whitaker lists her political interests as architecture and design, international development and race relations.[6]

Whitaker supports humanism in the House of Lords.[8][9] Contributions include amending Bills to specify obligations to observe good design in housing and planning, to widen scope beyond classic religion to include belief and values; Bills so amended include the Communications Bill, Asylum Bill, Charities Bill 2005, Equality Bill, Education and Inspections Bill, Housing and Planning bill.[8] She is a Patron of Humanists UK,[8] and a member of the Advisory Board for the British Institute of Human Rights.[2]

Whitaker was co-opted to the Virtual advisory panel of the United Nations Association – UK, the independent policy authority on the UN in the UK.[10] and is a member of the All‐Party Parliamentary Group on the United Nations (UN APPG) from the House of Lords.[11]

Whitaker was a Magistrate from 1984 until 2001.[2] She was a member of the Employment Tribunal from 1995 to 2000.[6] From 1996 to 1999 she served on the Camden Racial Equality Council, first as Deputy Chair and then as Chair.[6] Currently, she is president of the South Downs Society.[2]

  1. ^ a b "WHITAKER, Baroness". Who's Who 2014. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Baroness Whitaker". UK Parliament. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  3. ^ "The new list in full". The Times. 19 June 1999.
  4. ^ "Baroness Janet Whitaker". United Nations Association – UK (UNA-UK). Archived from the original on 12 August 2007.
  5. ^ "No. 55577". The London Gazette. 10 August 1999. p. 8621.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Honeyball, Mary. "Baroness Janet Whitaker of Beeston". Retrieved 24 July 2013.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference oneworldtrust was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ a b c "Baroness Whitaker: Former civil servant, Labour life peer since 1999, patron of the BHA". British Humanist Association. Archived from the original on 29 June 2012. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
  9. ^ "Ms Janet Whitaker". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Retrieved 23 July 2012.
  10. ^ "Virtual advisory panel". United Nations Association – UK (UNA-UK). Archived from the original on 26 January 2016. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  11. ^ "UN APPG members". United Nations Association – UK (UNA-UK). Archived from the original on 2 August 2013. Retrieved 23 July 2013.