Vera Baird - Career - Parliamentary - Solicitor General For England and Wales: 2007-2010

Solicitor General For England and Wales: 2007-2010

In June 2007 Baird became the Solicitor General for England and Wales, the Senior Law Officer in the House of Commons and the Government’s Chief Legal Adviser and Criminal Justice Minister, a position she held jointly with the Attorney General, Baroness Scotland. As Senior Law Officer Baird was responsible, together with the Attorney General, for the Law Office budget and for setting the strategic direction for the Crown Prosecution Service, Serious Fraud Office, Service Prosecuting Authority (covering the Armed Forces) Treasury Solicitor's Department, Government Legal Service, and Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate as well as giving Lead Ministerial sponsorship to the National Fraud Authority. At this time the Law Officers also oversaw the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland. A further aspect of the role of Solicitor General for England and Wales is the requirement for close liaison with various police bodies including the strategic level Association of Chief Police Officers (APCO).

As a Senior Law Officer, Baird held the responsibility, together with the Attorney General, for protecting the independence of Prosecutors; for providing legal advice to over 20 Whitehall departments and for taking action on contempt of court, (typically when press reporting of criminal cases may inappropriately influence their outcome). She represented the Government in court, in particular in the Court of Appeal Criminal Division on Unduly Lenient Sentence appeals, asking the Appeal Court to increase too lenient Crown Court sentences. She advised on charities law where there were disputes in which the State had an interest. The law officers advise on whether Bills are compatible with the Human Rights Act 1998.

As Solicitor General, Baird – together with the Attorney General - developed a pro bono committee to focus and streamline the availability of free legal advice. They set up the Access to Justice Foundation, to hold costs from pro bono cases and changed the law to allow lawyers who have acted on a for free basis to apply for costs to be put into the fund to support the organisation for future free legal work.

Baird and Scotland oversaw the introduction of Associate Prosecutors, extending the powers of less qualified prosecutors to present cases in the Magistrates Court, to save fully qualified solicitors from the need to conduct small case, so freeing them to prepare serious work for the Crown Court. They also developed and oversaw the introduction of CPS Online, a phone line for police charging advice.

With the Attorney General, Baird, as sponsor Minister, deployed a budget of £28M to implement the recommendations of the 2006 Fraud Review and established the National Fraud Authority (NFA), which became an executive agency of the Law Officers Departments (LODs) in 2008 with Dr Bernard Herdan as its Chief Executive.

Baird was a senior member of the Inter-Ministerial Group which oversaw the NFA and the co-ordination of the UK’s first National Fraud Strategy in partnership with over 28 public private and trade bodies. In April 2008, the City Of London Police was established as the Lead Force on fraud, to take over complex investigations and strengthen skills and expertise in the police nationwide. In its first year took on 71 major cases involving losses to victims estimated at £1Bn. The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau was established and Baird spoke at key events, such as the Fraud Advisory Panel’s Conference to promote co-ordinated action against fraud and in particular present a new focus on prevention and protection of what had historically and wrongly been seen as a victimless crime.

In June 2007 the Law Officers approved the enhanced Digital Forensic Unit, a £1M facility expanding the ability of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to retrieve information from computers and other devices seized in investigations.

In April 2008 Richard Alderman was appointed to transform the SErious Fraud Office following the highly critical De Grazia Report.

Baird and Scotland launched the Prosecutors’ Convention to streamline the operations of over 40 prosecuting bodies such as the Civil Aviation Authority, Maritime and Coastguard Agency, Financial Services Authority and the Office of Fair Trading.

Baird launched the Homophobic Hate Crime strategy and a Race and Religious Hate Crime strategy, with Sir Ken Macdonald and in 2008 with the CPS launched the first public policy on cases of crime against older people.

The CPS launched its first ever violence against women strategy in 2007, the first in Government and this resulted in policies on the prosecution or rape and domestic violence being updated and publicly launched.

Baird attended the Victims' Advisory Panel where victims informed of Government policy. She visited several joint CPS and Police Witness Care Unit s to develop the information and support for witnesses. She supported the roll-out of the Witness Intermediaries’ Scheme, which provides support for witnesses with communication difficulties, and the introduction of new offences to support those at risk of intimidation. Sara Payne was appointed as the first independent Victims’ Champion with a role to listen to the views and concerns of victims and witnesses, and to challenge criminal justice agencies to improve their practices..

Baird was a member of the National Criminal Justice Board which co-ordinates the agencies which collectively make up the Criminal Justice system. Here she worked with the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, the Chair of the Association of Police Authorities, the Judiciary, Probation and other agencies.

Baird was Ministerial sponsor of the Cleveland Local Criminal Justice Board and of the West Yorkshire LCJB.