Alex Carlile, Baron Carlile of Berriew

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The Lord Carlile of Berriew

Alexander Charles Carlile, Baron Carlile of Berriew, QC (born 12 February 1948) is a Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords.

Alex Carlile was brought up in north Wales and Lancashire. He was educated at Epsom College and King's College London. He was called to the Bar by Gray's Inn in 1970, and became a QC at the relatively young age of 36.

He was created a life peer in 1999, as Baron Carlile of Berriew, of Berriew in the County of Powys. He is a barrister and was previously a Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Montgomeryshire from 1983 to 1997. Carlile was the first Member of Parliament to campaign for the rights of transexuals.

Lord Carlile of Berriew acted in 2005 as the independent reviewer of British anti-terrorist laws, advocating the development of legislation in conformity with provisions of the Bush government's USA PATRIOT Act. Among those civil liberties targeted included the right to a trial, the requirement that charges be issued against the imprisoned, and limits on government wiretapping of citizens.

The Director of Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti, called his continued support for control orders "disappointing" in a February 2006 press release condemning the introduction of control orders by the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005. The press release said that this had led to the railroading of significant human rights. [1]

According to the Register of Lords' Interests, Lord Carlile of Berriew is inter alia an advisor to Mr. R. Hobson; a paid director of 5 Bell Yard Ltd. and the Wynnstay Group of agricultural feed manufacturers, agricultural goods merchants, and fuel oil distributors; a Deputy High Court Judge; a member of Council at JUSTICE, the British section of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ); and a trustee of Nuffield Trust, a UK health care think tank. He became President of the Howard League for Penal Reform in 2006.

Lord Carlile of Berriew is a practising barrister and head of Chambers of 9–12 Bell Yard barristers' Chambers, one of the leading criminal Chambers in England.

He lists his recreations as politics, theatre, food and Association Football, and is a member of the Athenaeum Club. He has three children and five grandchildren.