Baroness Corston Portrait

Baroness Corston

Labour - Life peer

Became Member: 29th June 2005


Baroness Corston is not a member of any APPGs
2 Former APPG memberships
Choir, Women in the Penal System
Constitution Committee
27th Jun 2017 - 13th Oct 2021
Social Mobility Committee
11th Jun 2015 - 16th Mar 2016
European Union Committee
16th May 2013 - 27th Nov 2014
Liaison Committee (Lords)
25th Nov 2009 - 4th Jul 2013
Privacy and Injunctions (Joint Committee)
18th Jul 2011 - 12th Mar 2012
Chair, Parliamentary Labour Party
7th Jun 2001 - 5th May 2005
Liaison Committee (Commons)
5th Nov 2001 - 5th May 2005
Human Rights (Joint Committee)
17th Jan 2001 - 11th Apr 2005
Home Affairs Committee
27th Nov 1995 - 21st Mar 1997
Agriculture
26th Oct 1992 - 15th Dec 1996


Division Voting information

During the current Parliament, Baroness Corston has voted in 263 divisions, and never against the majority of their Party.
View All Baroness Corston Division Votes

Debates during the 2019 Parliament

Speeches made during Parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. For ease of browsing we have grouped debates into individual, departmental and legislative categories.

Sparring Partners
Lord Callanan (Conservative)
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
(2 debate interactions)
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Legislation Debates
Baroness Corston has not made any spoken contributions to legislative debate
View all Baroness Corston's debates

Lords initiatives

These initiatives were driven by Baroness Corston, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.


Baroness Corston has not introduced any legislation before Parliament

Baroness Corston has not co-sponsored any Bills in the current parliamentary sitting


Latest 6 Written Questions

(View all written questions)
Written Questions can be tabled by MPs and Lords to request specific information information on the work, policy and activities of a Government Department
18th May 2020
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce the increased risks to maternal and infant health caused by COVID-19 (1) in the UK, and (2) around the globe.

The National Health Service is making arrangements to ensure the care, support and safety of women through pregnancy, birth and the postpartum period to mitigate increased pressures on healthcare services during the COVID-19 pandemic. NHS England and NHS Improvement have published a clinical guide for the temporary reorganisation of intrapartum maternity care to ensure the safety of mothers, babies and staff. To reduce the risk of infection, there are now restrictions on visitors in most hospitals and maternity units. Further, the Department is funding several studies researching the impact of COVID-19 on maternity and neonatal care to ensure rapid learning.

14th May 2020
To ask Her Majesty's Government what (1) security, and (2) privacy, provisions are being used to protect the data of the users of the NHSX COVID-19 contact tracing application; and what steps they have taken to ensure that the information gathered by that application is what is required by (a) epidemiologists, and (b) public health officials.

We have worked rigorously to make the app as privacy-conscious as possible, only collecting the data necessary to fulfil its epidemiological purpose and save lives. Security and privacy have been prioritised at all stages of the app’s development and we have drawn on expertise from across Government and industry to review our app’s designs.

Any user data collected centrally by the National Health Service will be held to the highest security standards. In addition to the continual monitoring, review and oversight undertaken by the NHS, we have consulted with the National Cyber Security Centre to review and supplement our processes. The app has been designed to calculate a user’s risk of infection using a heuristic model developed in collaboration with expert epidemiologists from the University of Oxford’s Big Data Institute. We have published an explanation of how the risk scoring algorithm works on the online only FAQ page of the NHS COVID-19 website. NHS doctors and scientists will continuously update the risk scoring algorithm to make it as accurate as possible.

The data collected supports the wider public health approach of manual contact tracing and testing. Anyone who has symptoms that are consistent with COVID-19, whether or not they are an app user, will be able to report those symptoms and get a test to find out if they have the virus.

2nd Jun 2020
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (1) women, and (2) men, are currently serving prison sentences for non-payment of council tax.

As at 30 June 2019 (latest available data) no females and one male were in prison, having been committed to prison for non-payment of council tax.

28th Apr 2020
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many pregnant women have been released from prison during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On 31 March, this government announced that pregnant women and prisoners living on Mother and Baby Units will be considered for Release on Temporary licence on compassionate grounds during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As of Friday 1 May, 21 pregnant women and prisoners with babies in custody have been released.

23rd Jan 2020
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Keen of Elie on 20 January (HL111), why the total number of releases, as outlined in the table Accommodation on Release from Custody: National Accommodation Circumstances, England and Wales between April 2017 and March 2019, has dropped from 18,239 in Quarter 1, to 12,544 in Quarter 4, of the 2018/19 financial year.

Issues have been identified with the data reported in the Accommodation and Employment annexes to the Community Performance Quarterly publication and this will be re-issued at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/community-performance-quarterly-update-to-june-2019 once these have been resolved.

A corrected version of HL111 will also be provided. We aim to have this issue resolved by the end of the month.

7th Jan 2020
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they intend to begin recording statistics on (1) the resettlement of offenders leaving prisons, and (2) prisoners who are released with no fixed abode.

The accommodation status for all offenders released from custody, including those under National Probation Service (NPS), Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) supervision, and offenders on community sentences, has been published since July 2018. The latest publication can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/community-performance-quarterly-update-to-march-2019. The relevant table of data from this publication is attached for reference.

It is vital that everyone leaving prison has somewhere safe and secure to live, as a platform to access the services and support needed to make a fresh start. We have invested an additional £22 million per annum over the remaining life of the Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) contracts to deliver an enhanced “Through-the-Gate” resettlement service to offenders leaving prison, to prepare them for release. Through the Government’s Rough Sleeping Strategy, we are also investing up to £6.4m in a pilot scheme to support individuals released from three prisons: Bristol, Leeds and Pentonville. Services have now commenced in all three areas, with the first individuals now being supported into accommodation following release. Subject to evaluation, we will use the lessons from the pilot to inform future provision of accommodation for all ex-offenders. Additionally, Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service is working in collaboration with other Government Departments and interested parties to help to meet the accommodation needs for prisoners on their release.