Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Responsibilities
The Secretary of State will deal personally with:
- the resourcing of his Departments
- major constitutional issues
- appointments, including all judicial appointments
- Royal, Church and Hereditary issues, and Lord Lieutenants
- Privy Counsellors (other than Cabinet Ministers) who have addressed their query to the Secretary of State personally. Where a Privy Counsellor writes to another Minister by name that Minister may respond personally
- correspondence with Cabinet Ministers, and the higher Judiciary
Biography
Lord Falconer of Thoroton was appointed as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice on 9 May 2007. He was appointed as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs in June 2003. He was called to the Bar (Inner Temple) in 1974 and was appointed Solicitor General in May 1997.
He served as Minister of State at the Cabinet Office from July 1998 to June 2001. In June 2001 he joined the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, where he was appointed Minister for Housing, Planning and Regeneration. He moved to the Home Office in May 2002 as Minister of State for Criminal Justice, Sentencing and Law Reform.
He is married with three sons and one daughter.
Education
Trinity College, Glenalmond, and Queens' College, Cambridge.