Jane Scott, Baroness Scott of Bybrook

The Right Honourable
The Baroness Scott of Bybrook
OBE
Official portrait, 2018
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Social Housing and Faith[1]
In office
20 September 2022 – 5 July 2024
Prime MinisterLiz Truss
Rishi Sunak[2]
Succeeded byThe Baron Khan of Burnley
Baroness-in-Waiting
Government Whip
In office
14 February 2020 – 20 September 2022
Prime MinisterBoris Johnson
Preceded byThe Baroness Sater
Leader of the Wiltshire Council
In office
1 April 2009 – 10 July 2019
Preceded byCouncil established
Succeeded byPhilip Whitehead
Leader of the Wiltshire County Council
In office
15 July 2003 – 1 April 2009
Preceded byPeter Chalke
Succeeded byCouncil abolished
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office
3 November 2015
Life Peerage
Wiltshire Councillor
for Bybrook
In office
4 June 2009 – 14 February 2020
Preceded byCouncil established
Succeeded byNick Botterill
Wiltshire County Councillor
for Kington
In office
1 May 1997 – 1 April 2009
Preceded byDoreen Darby
Succeeded byCouncil merged into Wiltshire Council
Personal details
Born (1947-06-13) 13 June 1947 (age 77)
Political partyConservative

Jane Antoinette Scott, Baroness Scott of Bybrook, OBE (born 13 June 1947) is a British Conservative politician who served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Social Housing and Faith from September 2022 to July 2024.[3][4][5] She is a member of the House of Lords and was a government whip from 2020 to 2022. She was leader of Wiltshire County Council between 2003 and 2009 and then of its successor the Wiltshire Council unitary authority from June 2009 until July 2019, when she stood down, also retiring as a councillor in February 2020.

Early life

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Born on 13 June 1947,[6][7] Scott was educated at the Convent of Jesus and Mary High School in Harlesden, Brent, London, and then took a diploma in dairying at the Lancashire College of Agriculture, later renamed as Myerscough College.[8]

Career

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After college, Scott worked in the dairy industry, on farms and also in public relations work, marketing and lecturing.[9] She moved to Wiltshire in the 1990s and in 1995 was elected to North Wiltshire District Council. Two years later, she was elected to Wiltshire County Council, and in 2001 became chairman of its Education Committee,[9] then cabinet member for children, education and libraries, and finally Leader in 2003.[10][11] In the county council, she represented the Kington division,[12] and in the district council Kington St Michael.[13]

When chosen to lead Wiltshire County Council in 2003, Scott said: "Being elected leader of the council is a great honour and I intend to devote all of my time and energies to my new responsibilities."[10] For some years, she was a member of the Local Government Association's General Assembly[14] and for a time her name was on the Conservative Party 'A' List of parliamentary candidates.[15] As leader of the county council, from 2007 she successfully argued for a unitary authority for Wiltshire, which would mean the demise of the county's four existing District Councils, facing determined opposition from leading Conservatives, including Eric Pickles and Michael Ancram.[8]

In 2009, in the first elections to a new Wiltshire Council, the unitary authority created by merging the county and its districts, she was elected for a new division called "By Brook".[16] This includes the parishes of Biddestone (with Slaughterford), Castle Combe, Hullavington, Grittleton, Nettleton, North Wraxall, and Yatton Keynell.[17] The Conservatives won 62 of the 98 seats available, and a few days later Scott was elected as the first Leader of the new unitary authority.[18]

Scott was appointed OBE in the 2010 New Year Honours for services to local government.[19] On 27 August 2015 it was announced that on the nomination of David Cameron she was to be created a life peer, giving her a seat in the House of Lords.[20] She was created Baroness Scott of Bybrook, of Upper Wraxall in the County of Wiltshire, on the afternoon of 8 October.[21] The title refers to the Bybrook River, after which Scott's electoral division of Wiltshire was named.

She was a member of the National Youth Agency and the Wiltshire and Swindon Learning Skills Council.[11] chair of the Wiltshire Strategic Board,[22] and a Local Education Authority Inspector for Ofsted.[13]

In May 2019, Scott announced that she was standing down as Leader of Wiltshire Council with effect from July,[23] and on 10 July 2019, Phillip Whitehead took over from her.[24] She resigned as a councillor in February 2020, and in March Nick Botterill, a former Leader of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham was selected as the new Conservative candidate for By Brook.[25] He was elected at the 2021 elections.[26][27]

Baroness Scott of Bybrook piloted many key government Bills in the 2022-23 Session of Parliament, including the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, and the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, and was the Government spokesperson on a number of successful Private Members' Bills in that Session.

Private life

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In 1986 Scott married Ronald J. Scott, an executive of the International Monetary Fund.[28] They had three children, and until 2013 lived near Chippenham on a livestock farm.[11] After a severe fall from a horse in the 1980s, she took up breeding Caspian horses,[29] and in 1999 her occupation was "horse stud owner". She and her daughter Fleur, a vet, have been active members of the Caspian Breed Society.[30]

See also

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Wiltshire Council's banner

Notes

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References

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  1. ^ Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Faith and Communities until 13 November 2023
  2. ^ "Ministerial Appointments commencing: 25 October 2022". GOV.UK. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  3. ^ "Ministerial Appointments: September 2022". GOV.UK. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
  4. ^ "Baroness Scott of Bybrook OBE". GOV.UK. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
  5. ^ "Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Faith and Communities) - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 9 November 2022.
  6. ^ "Jane Scott". api.parliament.uk. Retrieved 29 June 2022.
  7. ^ "Jane Antionette SCOTT - Personal Appointments (free information from Companies House)". beta.companieshouse.gov.uk.
  8. ^ a b Peter Hetherington, Leader of Wiltshire Council in The Guardian dated 28 May 2013, online at the guardian.com, accessed 16 November 2014.
  9. ^ a b Wiltshire County Council, Clerk's Department page at nationalarchives.gov.uk
  10. ^ a b PR 1220 Wiltshire County Council elects a new leader (Tuesday 15 July 2003)[permanent dead link‍] at wiltshire.gov.uk
  11. ^ a b c Mrs Jane Scott Archived 4 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine at northwilts-communityweb.com
  12. ^ Kington Electoral Division Mrs Jane Scott Leader of the Council and Conservative Group Leader Archived 20 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine at wiltshire.gov.uk
  13. ^ a b Cllr Jane Scott Archived 21 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine at northwiltsconservatives.com
  14. ^ "REPRESENTATION ON THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION (LGA) AND OTHER OUTSIDE BODIES AND APPOINTMENT OF JOINT COMMITTEES". Archived from the original on 29 May 2011. Retrieved 16 November 2008.
  15. ^ Who is on the A-list? at conservativehome web site
  16. ^ "For the division of By Brook Details for 2009 election". Archived from the original on 12 June 2009. Retrieved 8 June 2009.
  17. ^ Order map no. 1 Archived 20 October 2010 at the Wayback Machine of Wiltshire Boundary Review 2008 at Electoral Commission website
  18. ^ The Municipal year book and public services directory, volume 2 (Municipal Journal, 2010), p. 1346
  19. ^ "No. 59282". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2009. p. 12.
  20. ^ "Dissolution Peerages 2015". Gov.uk. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  21. ^ "notice 2415685". The London Gazette.
  22. ^ Wiltshire launches new community safety and drugs strategy (29 June 2005)[permanent dead link‍]
  23. ^ "Wiltshire Council leader Jane Scott to step down from role" in Wiltshire Times online dated 21 May 2019
  24. ^ GABRIELLA JOZWIAK Baroness Scott to stand down dated 10 July 2019, at lgcplus.com, accessed 11 July 2019
  25. ^ Matthew McLaughlin, "By-election: Meet the two By Brook candidates", wiltshiretimes.co.uk, 17 March 2020, accessed 25 April 2020
  26. ^ Elise Britten, Latest news at the Wiltshire Council election counts - live updates, Swindon Advertiser, 8 May 2021, accessed 8 May 2021
  27. ^ By Brook, elections.wiltshire.gov.uk, 8 May 2021, accessed 8 May 2021
  28. ^ Councillors pay increase defended dated 3 February 2014 in Valley News online
  29. ^ History & Fleur Scott at caspian-stud.webnode.se, accessed 26 July 2016
  30. ^ Jane Antoinette Scott at checkcompany.co.uk, accessed 26 July 2016
[edit]

Civic offices
Preceded by
New council
 Leader of Wiltshire Council
June 2009 – July 2019 		Succeeded by
Philip Whitehead
Preceded by Leader of Wiltshire County Council
2003 – June 2009 		Succeeded by
Council defunct
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