Pauline Neville-Jones, Baroness Neville-Jones

The Right Honourable
The Baroness Neville-Jones
DCMG PC
Minister of State for Security and Counter Terrorism
In office
12 May 2010 – 9 May 2011
Prime Minister David Cameron
Preceded by Admiral Lord West
Succeeded by James Brokenshire
(as Under-Secretary for Security)
Personal details
Born Lilian Pauline Neville-Jones
2 November 1939
Birmingham
Political party Conservative
Alma mater Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford

Lilian Pauline Neville-Jones, Baroness Neville-Jones DCMG PC (born 2 November 1939) is a former BBC Governor and Chairman of the British Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC). Before her elevation to the Peerage she was known as Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, DCMG. On 12 May 2010, the new Prime Minister David Cameron appointed Lady Neville-Jones his Minister of State for Security and Counter Terrorism at the Home Office with a permanent position on the newly created National Security Council.[1]

On 9 May 2011, the BBC reported that Lady Neville-Jones had resigned her role as Security Minister at "her own request."[2] Her Security brief was taken over by James Brokenshire MP.[3] She was then "immediately appointed as Special Representative to Business on Cyber Security".[4]

Education

Lady Neville-Jones was educated at Leeds Girls' High School and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford (Modern History).

Career

Civil Service

Lady Neville-Jones was a career member of Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service from 1963 to 1996, during which time she served in British Missions in Rhodesia, Singapore, Washington, DC and Bonn. Between 1977 and 1982 she was seconded to the European Commission where she worked as Deputy and then Chef de Cabinet to Commissioner Christopher Tugendhat.[5]

From 1991 to 1994 she was Head of the Defence and Overseas Secretariat in the Cabinet Office and Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet. During 1993 and 1994 she was Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee. From 1994, until her retirement, she was Political Director in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, in which capacity she led the British delegation to the Dayton negotiations on the Bosnia peace settlement. In 2003 the Bosnian leader Alija Izetbegović commented that during these negotiations she "never tried to conceal her dislike for us."[6]

BBC

She was appointed a BBC governor in January 1998. Her final post was as the Chairman of the Governors' World Service Consultative Group. Neville-Jones was Chairman of the Audit Committee from 1998. She stood down from that position in September 2004 and left the BBC on 31 December 2004.

Defence

From 2002 to 2005, Lady Neville-Jones was also non-executive chairman of the part Government-owned defence technology company QinetiQ, which was privatised for £1.3 billion in February 2006. She was also chairman of the Information Assurance Advisory Council until 2007.[7]

Politics

Baroness Neville-Jones (right) at Conservative Party conference, 2011

In January 2006 Dame Pauline joined one of the Conservative Party's new 'policy groups' on national security.

On 2 July 2007 it was announced that she would become shadow Security Minister and a working peer. This was gazetted as Baroness Neville-Jones, of Hutton Roof in the County of Cumbria on 15 October 2007.[8][9]

On 9 January 2009, she warned that Israel's ongoing war in the Gaza Strip would encourage revolutionary Islamism in Arab countries and Islamic terrorism beyond, and called for a revival of the Middle East peace process.[10]

On 13 May 2010, she was appointed Minister of State for Security and Counter Terrorism in David Cameron's Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government, and was also created a Privy Counsellor in addition to her ministerial role.

On 31 March 2011 she told the Daily Telegraph that Britain's Muslim population needs to be persuaded by the government that Britain is a single nation, and that they can't just "rub along together" but must be persuaded that their long-term future lies in Britain.[11] Neville-Jones later spoke out against "internet hate preaching and jihadist rhetoric", arguing that the murder of Lee Rigby was likely to have been inspired by such material.[12]

On 9 May 2011, Baroness Neville-Jones resigned from her post as Minister of State for Security and Counter-Terrorism at the Home Office at her own request.[2]

Neville-Jones and Ahmed Rashid at the Halifax International Security Forum 2012

In November 2014, Neville-Jones presented a speech at the Halifax International Security Forum, which she prefaced with an op-ed in a Toronto newspaper. She wrote about the quantum technology revolution and related that the "policy failure" of the 2003 Iraq war was due to "outdated intelligence, lack of ability to test agent information against other sources and misinterpretation of apparent battlefield evidence".[13]

Positions

She is an Honorary Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford and Doctor of the University of London and the Open University. In August 2013, the Council on CyberSecurity announced that Lady Neville-Jones is now a member of the organization’s Advisory Board.[14]

Honours

She was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 1987 Birthday Honours,[15] and was raised to Dame Commander (DCMG) in the 1995 New Year's Honours.[16] She was appointed Chevalier (Knight) of the French Légion d'honneur in 2009.

References

  1. ↑ "Cameron chairs first UK security council meeting". BBC News (BBC). 12 May 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2011.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Security minister Baroness Neville-Jones steps down". BBC News. BBC. 9 May 2011. Retrieved 12 May 2011.
  3. ↑ Johnson, Wesley (12 May 2011). "James Brokenshire takes on security role". Independent. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  4. ↑ "Security minister Baroness Neville-Jones steps down".
  5. ↑ The Diplomatic Service List 1989 (page 263), HMSO, ISBN 0-11-591707-1.
  6. ↑ Inescapable Questions (2003), page.310.
  7. ↑ "IAAC".
  8. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 58462. p. 14057. 27 September 2007.
  9. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 58492. p. 15425. 25 October 2007.
  10. ↑ Eddie Mair (9 January 2009). "9 January 2009". PM. 11 minutes in. BBC Radio. BBC Radio 4.
  11. ↑ Gardham, Duncan (31 March 2011). "Britons need to see themselves as a single nation, says Security Minister". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 12 May 2011.
  12. ↑ telegraph.co.uk: "Woolwich attack: We must tackle hate preaching over the internet, security experts say" 23 May 2013
  13. ↑ G+M: "Intelligence: the state must be fit for the purpose" (Neville-Jones) 21 Nov 2014
  14. ↑ http://www.counciloncybersecurity.org/about-us/advisory-board
  15. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 50948. p. 3. 13 June 1987.
  16. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 54255. p. 3. 29 December 1995.

Styles

External links