In 2001,she became Parliamentary Secretary,Lord Chancellor's Department,and was made a member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom. She was the minister formally responsible for civil justice and the reform of civil law including the comprehensive reform of land registration leading to the Land Registration Act 2002. She was also formally responsible for international affairs at the Lord Chancellor's Department and was appointed by Prime Minister Tony Blair as the UK Alternate Representative to the European Convention[9] and was given primary responsibility for the negotiations in relation to the Charter of Rights which were successfully concluded in 2003.
On 28 June 2007,Scotland was appointed Attorney General by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.[7] She was the first woman to hold the office since its foundation in 1315.
She was the last Attorney General for England and Wales also to be the Attorney General for Northern Ireland before the devolution of justice powers to the Northern Ireland Assembly,and appointment of a separate Attorney General for Northern Ireland. She became instead Advocate General for Northern Ireland,the UK government's chief advisor on Northern Ireland law,for a brief period until Labour left office.
Shadow Attorney General
When Labour left government on 11 May 2010,Scotland became the Shadow Attorney General and was reappointed to that role by Ed Miliband when he appointed his first Shadow Cabinet in October 2010.[11]
In December 2014,Scotland was elected as the Alderman for the ward of Bishopsgate in the City of London,having stood (in accordance with convention in the City) as an independent candidate.[13]
Her candidacy was opposed by retired Canadian senatorHugh Segal,formerly Canada's special envoy to the Commonwealth and a member of the 2009—2011 Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group mandated to recommend reforms to improve Commonwealth governance,[16] who wrote in an editorial that Scotland was not qualified for the position because she "accepted a well-paying brief from a junta in the Maldives to argue against the Commonwealth's legitimacy when it and Canada sought the restoration of democracy in that country."[17][18]
Her bid to have her four-year term automatically renewed was rejected in June 2020,in contrast to the usual convention where an incumbent seeking a second term in office is elected unopposed for his or her second term. This followed a "significant and diverse number of colleagues from across the Commonwealth" raising objection to the proposal,due to allegations of cronyism following an audit of the Commonwealth Secretariat's procurement practices. Her first term was extended,however,due to the postponement of the 2020 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.[19][20]
Scotland was re-elected to a second term at the 2022 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting,reportedly defeating Jamaican foreign minister Kamina Johnson Smith by 27 votes to 24. As her first term had been extended by two years due to the pandemic and the postponement of the 2020 CHOGM,Scotland promised that she will only serve for two more years instead of a full four-year term.[21]
In January 2009,Scotland employed Lolo Tapui,an illegal immigrant,as a cleaner. Tapui had been using a forged passport for the period up to and including December 2008. Tapui was later jailed for eight months for fraud,possessing a false identity stamp,and overstaying her UK visa. At her trial,Tapui admitted to having been paid £95,000 by the Daily Mail. She was later deported to her native Tonga.[23]
Scotland,who was Attorney General at the time,had earlier been subjected to a penalty of £5,000 for employing Tapui. She had not kept copies of relevant documents to check Tapui's immigration status and could therefore not establish a statutory defence. The rules were established when Scotland was a Home Office minister. The investigation by the UK Border Agency found that Scotland did not "knowingly" employ an illegal worker.[24]
Expenses controversy
In November 2016,political blogger Guido Fawkes published purported extracts from leaked documents exposing Scotland's extravagant spending on redecorating her grace and favour apartment in Mayfair,London. Scotland denied the claims in a statement posted on the Commonwealth's website,insisting there had been "no extravagance at all" and explained that the spending was agreed by Kamalesh Sharma,the Commonwealth's secretary-general from 2008 to 2016.[25][26]
Contract controversy
In January 2020,Scotland faced further criticism of her role as secretary-general of the Commonwealth for awarding a consultancy contract to a company run by a friend. The Audit Committee of the international organisation noted that she offered a contract to a fellow Labour peer,Lord Patel of Bradford,despite his firm being "apparently insolvent" and "circumventing" the normal competitive tendering process.[27] Auditors also found that procurement rules had not been observed by the secretariat on over 50 occasions.[28]
Praise for Azerbaijan
Scotland has praised the authoritarian regime in Azerbaijan for its leadership on climate issues.[29] In 2024,she attended an event in Baku organized by a newly created Azerbaijani NGO run by a businessperson with close ties to the authoritarian regime.[29] At the event,she urged young Azerbaijanis to support their authoritarian government.[29] She also laid flowers at the grave of Azerbaijani dictator Heydar Aliyev.[29] She attended an event in 2015 at Baku’s Four Seasons Hotel launching a glossy book praising Azerbaijan's state-owned oil company SOCAR.[29]
Scotland resides in London[40] and in Asthal,Oxfordshire,where she and her husband Richard Mawhinney,also a barrister,live with their two sons.[41][42]
Scotland's son Matthew Mawhinney has appeared on the reality series Too Hot to Handle. In 2021,he was arrested and fined for abusing cabin crew on a British Airways flight,including shouting "Look up who my mum is –Baroness Scotland [...] go and get me a drink" after being refused alcohol.[43]
↑ Taylor, Jerome (28 September 2009). "Black power list published". The Independent. Archived from the original on 10 June 2020. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
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