Valerie Amos, Baroness Amos

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Valerie Ann Amos, Baroness Amos, PC (born 13 March 1954) is a British Labour Party politician and life peer, currently serving as Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council. When she was appointed Secretary of State for International Development on 12 May 2003, following the resignation of Clare Short, she became the first black woman to sit in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom.

Lady Amos was made Leader of the House of Lords on 6 October 2003 following the death of Lord Williams of Mostyn, which meant that her tenure as Secretary of State for International Development lasted less than six months. Prior to her appointment as Secretary of State for International Development, Lady Amos was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs on June 11, 2001, with responsibility for Africa; Commonwealth; Caribbean; Overseas Territories; Consular Issues and FCO Personnel.

Lady Amos was the principal spokesperson in the House of Lords on International Development as well as one of the Government's spokespersons in the House of Lords on Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. She was previously a Government Whip in the House of Lords from 1998 to 2001 and also a spokesperson on Social Security, International Development and Women's Issues. She was created a life peer in August 1997 as Baroness Amos, of Brondesbury in the London Borough of Brent.

Lady Amos has worked in local government before serving in the cabinet but has never stood as an MP^{[citation needed]}.

Lady Amos was born in Guyana, and attended Townley Grammar School for Girls in Bexleyheath where she was the first black Head Girl. She then studied at Warwick, Birmingham and the University of East Anglia, and was awarded an Honorary Professorship at Thames Valley University in 1995 in recognition of her work on equality and social justice. She was also awarded honorary degrees of Doctor of Laws from the University of Warwick in 2000 and the University of Leicester in 2006.

After working in Equal Opportunities, Training and Management Services in local government in the London boroughs of Lambeth, Camden and Hackney, she became Chief Executive of the Equal Opportunities Commission 1989–94. In 1995 Amos co-founded Amos Fraser Bernard and was an adviser to the South African Government on public service reform, human rights and employment equity.

In the House of Lords, Lady Amos was a co-opted member of the Select Committee on European Communities Sub-Committee F (Social Affairs, Education and Home Affairs) 1997–98.

Lady Amos has also been Deputy Chair of the Runnymede Trust 1990–98, a Trustee of the Institute for Public Policy Research, a non-executive Director of the University College London Hospitals Trust, a Trustee of Voluntary Services Overseas, Chair of the Afiya Trust, a director of Hampstead Theatre and Chair of the Board of Governors of the Royal College of Nursing Institute.

On 17 February 2005, the British government nominated her to head the United Nations Development Programme ^[1].

[edit] References

^ Amos nominated for senior UN job

[edit] External links

Political offices
Preceded by Clare Short	Secretary of State for International Development 2003	Succeeded by Hilary Benn
Preceded by The Lord Williams of Mostyn	Lord President of the Council 2003—	Incumbent
Preceded by The Lord Williams of Mostyn	Leader of the House of Lords 2003—	Incumbent