Lilian Pauline Neville-Jones, Baroness Neville-Jones (born 2 November 1939) is a British politician and former civil servant who served as Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) from 1993 to 1994. A member of the Conservative Party, she served on the

National Security Council A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a n ...

and was Minister of State for Security and Counter Terrorism at the

Home Office The Home Office (HO), also known (especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament) as the Home Department, is the United Kingdom's interior ministry. It is responsible for public safety and policing, border security, immigr ...

from 2010 to 2011. On 12 May 2010, Prime Minister

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron, Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton (born 9 October 1966) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016. Until 2015, he led the first coalition government in the UK s ...

appointed her as Minister of State for Security and Counter Terrorism in the

with a permanent position on the newly created

. On 9 May 2011, the BBC reported that Neville-Jones had left her role as Security Minister at "her own request"; her security brief was taken over by

James Brokenshire James Peter Brokenshire (8 January 1968 – 7 October 2021) was a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he served in Theresa May's cabinet as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 2016 to 2018 and then as Secretary of ...

. She was then immediately appointed as "Special Representative to Business on Cyber Security".

Education

Lady Neville-Jones was educated at Leeds Girls' High School and

Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford Lady Margaret Hall (LMH) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, located on a bank of the River Cherwell at Norham Gardens in north Oxford and adjacent to the University Parks. The ...

(Modern History).

Career

Civil Service

Neville-Jones was a career member of

Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service His Majesty's Diplomatic Service (HMDS) is the diplomatic service of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, dealing with foreign affairs and representing British interests overseas, as opposed to the Civil Service, which deals ...

from 1963 to 1996, during which time she served in British Missions in

Rhodesia Rhodesia ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state, unrecognised state in Southern Africa that existed from 1965 to 1979. Rhodesia served as the ''de facto'' Succession of states, successor state to the ...

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

and

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

. Between 1977 and 1982 she was seconded to the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

where she worked as Deputy and then

Chef de Cabinet In some Francophone countries and international organisations, a ( French; literally 'head of office') is a senior official working for a high-ranking political or administrative figure such as a government minister. They are typically responsib ...

to Commissioner Christopher Tugendhat. From 1991 to 1994 she was Head of the Defence and Overseas Secretariat in the

Cabinet Office The Cabinet Office is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for supporting the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, prime minister and Cabinet ...

and Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet. During 1993 and 1994 she was Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee. From 1994, until her retirement, she was Political Director in the

Foreign and Commonwealth Office The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is the ministry of foreign affairs and a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the government of the United Kingdom. The office was created on 2 ...

, in which capacity she led the British delegation to the

Dayton Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...

negotiations on the

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

peace settlement. In 2003 the Bosnian leader

Alija Izetbegović Alija Izetbegović (; 8 August 1925 – 19 October 2003) was a Bosnian politician, Islamic philosophy, Islamic philosopher and author, who in 1992 became the first Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, president of the Presidency ...

commented that during these negotiations she "never tried to conceal her dislike for us". Before she left the civil service, Neville-Jones was openly critical of the Foreign Office for passing her over for the post of ambassador to France.

Business dealings with Milosevic

In 1996, shortly after resigning from the Foreign Office, Neville-Jones and her former boss Douglas Hurd were hired by NatWest Markets, a British bank, to travel to Belgrade and negotiate a privatisation deal with Slobodan Milosevic for Serbia's state telecoms industry. The money from the deal revitalised Milosevic's dictatorship and may have helped fund his later war in Kosovo. Neville-Jones and Hurd were extensively criticised for their decision to take part in the deal.

BBC

She was appointed a BBC governor in January 1998. Her final post was as chairman of the Governors' World Service Consultative Group. Neville-Jones was chairman of the

Audit Committee An audit committee is a committee of an organisation's board of directors which is responsible for oversight of the financial reporting process, selection of the independent auditor, and receipt of audit results both internal and external. In a U ...

from 1998 until standing down from that position in September 2004 and left the BBC on 31 December 2004.

Defence

From 2002 to 2005, Neville-Jones was non-executive chairman of the part Government-owned defence technology company

QinetiQ QinetiQ ( as in '' kinetic'') is a British defence technology company headquartered in Farnborough, Hampshire. It operates primarily in the defence, security and critical national infrastructure markets and run testing and evaluation capabili ...

, which was

privatised Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation wh ...

for £1.3 billion in February 2006. She was chairman of the Information Assurance Advisory Council until 2007.

Politics

From left to right Dean Godson and Baroness Neville - Jones DCMG PC

In January 2006 she joined one of the Conservative Party's new 'policy groups' on national security. On 2 July 2007 her appointment as a working peer and

Shadow A shadow is a dark area on a surface where light from a light source is blocked by an object. In contrast, shade occupies the three-dimensional volume behind an object with light in front of it. The cross-section of a shadow is a two-dimensio ...

Security Minister was announced. Her title was gazetted as ''Baroness Neville-Jones, of Hutton Roof in the County of Cumbria'' on 15 October 2007. On 9 January 2009, Lady Neville-Jones warned that Israel's ongoing war in the Gaza Strip would encourage revolutionary

Islamism Islamism is a range of religious and political ideological movements that believe that Islam should influence political systems. Its proponents believe Islam is innately political, and that Islam as a political system is superior to communism ...

in Arab countries and

Islamic terrorism Islamic terrorism (also known as Islamist terrorism, radical Islamic terrorism, or jihadist terrorism) refers to terrorist acts carried out by fundamentalist militant Islamists and Islamic extremists. Since at least the 1990s, Islami ...

beyond, and called for a revival of the Middle East peace process. On 13 May 2010, she was appointed Minister of State for Security and Counter Terrorism in David Cameron's Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government, and was also sworn of the Privy Council. On 31 March 2011 she told ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' that Britain's Muslim population needs to be persuaded by the Government that Britain is a single nation, and that they can't just "rub along together" but must be persuaded that their long-term future lies in Britain. Neville-Jones later spoke out against "internet hate preaching and jihadist rhetoric", arguing that the

murder of Lee Rigby On the afternoon of 22 May 2013, a British Army soldier, Fusilier#United Kingdom, Fusilier Lee Rigby of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, was attacked and killed by Islamic terrorism, Islamist terrorists Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale n ...

was likely to have been inspired by such material. Pauline Neville-Jones and Ahmed Rashid at HISF 2012

On 9 May 2011, Neville-Jones left her post as Minister of State for Security and Counter-Terrorism in the Home Office at her own request. In November 2014, Neville-Jones presented a speech at the

Halifax International Security Forum The Halifax International Security Forum (also known as HISF or Halifax Forum) is an annual summit for international government and military officials, academic experts, authors and entrepreneurs, held in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is organ ...

, which she prefaced with an op-ed in a Toronto newspaper. She wrote about the quantum technology revolution and related that the "policy failure" of the 2003 Iraq War was due to "outdated intelligence, lack of ability to test agent information against other sources and misinterpretation of apparent battlefield evidence".

Positions

Neville-Jones is an honorary fellow of

, and an honorary doctor of the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

and the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...

. In August 2013, the Council on CyberSecurity announced that she had joined the organization's Advisory Board. She is also an Advisory Board member at the Council on Geostrategy.

Honours

Appointed a

Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince of Wales (the future King George IV), while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George I ...

(CMG) in the 1987 Birthday Honours, she was raised to

Dame Commander ''Dame'' is a traditionally British honorific title given to women who have been admitted to certain orders of chivalry. It is the female equivalent of ''Sir'', the title used by knights. Baronetesses in their own right also use the title ''Da ...

(DCMG) in the 1995 New Year's Honours. Neville-Jones also received the Légion d'honneur (Chevalier) in 2009. She was recognized as one of the BBC's 100 women of 2013.

Styles

* Pauline Neville-Jones (1939–1987) * Pauline Neville-Jones, CMG (1987–1995) * Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, DCMG (1995–2007) * ''The Right Honourable'' The Baroness Neville-Jones, DCMG (2007–2010)''Debrett's People of Today''
/ref> * ''The Right Honourable'' The Baroness Neville-Jones, DCMG PC (2010–present)

References

External links

Profile on the Conservative Party website

Guardian, 3 July 2007 Joining the Shadow Team

Interview with the Alligator magazine, 23 January 2010
{{DEFAULTSORT:Neville-Jones, Pauline Neville-Jones, Baroness 1939 births Living people People educated at Leeds Girls' High School Alumni of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford Fellows of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford BBC governors Chairs of the Joint Intelligence Committee (United Kingdom) Civil servants in the Cabinet Office Conservative Party (UK) life peers Diplomatic peers Dames Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Knights of the Legion of Honour Members of HM Diplomatic Service Qinetiq Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom British women diplomats 20th-century British diplomats Life peeresses created by Elizabeth II Life peers created by Elizabeth II