Question Time on Shabina Begum

QUESTION TIME ON SHABINA BEGUM

THE MEMBERS OF THE PANEL

Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty

Shami Chakrabarti has been Director of Liberty since September 2003.
Shami first joined Liberty as In-House Counsel on 10 September 2001. She became heavily involved in its engagement with the “War on Terror” and with the defence and promotion of human rights values in Parliament, the Courts and wider society.
A Barrister by background, she was called to the Bar (Middle Temple) in 1994 and worked as a lawyer in the Home Office from 1996 until the summer of 2001. During that time she worked for Governments of both persuasions. She worked on policy, legislation and litigation in the counter-terror, asylum and criminal justice areas, and on the implementation of the Human Rights Act within Government.
Since becoming Liberty’s Director she has written, spoken and broadcast widely on the importance of the post-WW2 human rights framework as an essential component of democratic society. She was recently appointed a Governor of the London School of Economics and sits on the Advisory Board of the British Institute of Human Rights and the Executive Committee of the Administrative Law Bar Association.
She is thirty six years old and lives with her husband and three year old son in London.

About Liberty

Liberty is one of the UK's leading human rights and civil liberties organisations. It was founded as the National Council for Civil Liberties in 1934 and has campaigned for equal rights for over 70 years.
We believe in a society based on the democratic participation of all its members and the principles of justice, openness, the right to dissent and respect for diversity.
We aim to secure the equal rights of everyone (as long as they don't infringe the rights and freedoms of others) and oppose any abuse or excessive power by the state against its people.
Liberty is a membership organisation, and relies on the support of thousands of individuals who want to protect and promote civil liberties and human rights.
What we do
We lobby Parliament, exposing laws that undermine civil liberties and human rights, and working with politicians to correct them.
We challenge unjust laws, by taking test cases to UK courts and the European Court of Human Rights.
We conduct important research and publish reports on a issues as diverse as the process of investigating deaths in custody to the right of privacy in Britain.
We provide expert guidance to lawyers, NGO's and the public, via three specialist advice lines, human rights training and an advice website.

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Sir Digby Jones LLB (hons), D.Univ, D.Litt. DL, CIMgt, FRIDirector-General of the CBI

Born in Birmingham on 28 October 1955, he won a major scholarship to Bromsgrove School and gained a 2:1 honours degree in law at University College, London.
After some time in the Royal Navy, he started his career with corporate law firm Edge & Ellison in 1978, making partner in 1984.
It was in corporate finance and client development that he made his name and he was responsible for developing the firm's London presence and establishing its representation in many European countries and several states in America. He was also involved in most of the major management buy-outs and merger and acquisition activity in the West Midlands in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was made Deputy Senior Partner in 1990 and Senior Partner in 1995.
In 1998 he joined KPMG as Vice-Chairman of corporate finance, where he acted as close adviser to many public companies across the United Kingdom and in KPMG's global markets.
He became Director-General of the CBI on 1 January 2000 to serve a five-year non-renewable term of office. In September 2003 this was extended at the request of CBI members to seven years, his term now ending on 31 December 2006. As the Chief Executive of the UK's 'voice of business', he regularly and repeatedly visits businesses around the UK and across the world, taking their views back to those who make the rules. He appears regularly on television and radio and in the newspapers, promoting the interests of wealth and job creation in the UK, the rest of Europe and beyond. He has taken the British business message to over 60 different countries since he was appointed.
He is a Non-Executive Director of Alba plc (2003), the consumer electronics manufacturer, a Non-Executive Director of unlisted mhl support plc (2004), a training provider in the health & safety arena, a director of Leicester Tigers Rugby Club (2005), a Director of Business in the Community (2000), a member of the Advisory Board of the Commonwealth Education Fund (2000); a Director of Königswinter (2003), a Commissioner on the Commission for Racial Equality (2003) and President of the Tourism Alliance (2001). He is also a member of the National Learning and Skills Council (2002) and a member of the Skills Alliance (2002), a Fellow of the RSA (2001), a Fellow of the Royal Institution (2002), a Companion of the Institute of Management (2000), Chairman of the Birmingham University Business School Advisory Board (2004), a full member of the Aston Reinvestment Trust, making social investment for Birmingham (2003), a Fellow of the Sunningdale Institute and an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers (2006).
He is a Fellow of University College London (2004), an Honorary Doctor of the University of Central England (2002), the University of Birmingham (2002), the University of Manchester, Institute of Science and Technology (2003), the University of Hertfordshire (2004), Middlesex University (2005), Sheffield Hallam University (2005), Aston University (2006) and an Honorary Fellow of Cardiff University (2004). He is President of the University College, London Campaign (2004).
He is a Vice-President of UNICEF, Chairman of the Cancer research UK Ambassadors, President of the Diversity Works initiative - a programme led by the disability organisation Scope, designed to spread the message of equality for disabled people, a Vice-President of Birmingham Hospice, a Vice-President of Weston Spirit – working for a future for disadvantaged young people in Britain's cities, a Patron of Hospice of Hope, Romania, a Patron of Lifecycle UK, a Patron of Canning House Library Appeal, Chairman of the Corporate Development Board of Sense raising money for the deaf/blind, a Patron of the Campaign for Learning, a Patron of WellChild, a Patron of Where Next Association – providing work and training opportunities for people with special needs, a Patron of Every Child a Reader, a Diamond Ambassador for Mencap’s WorkRight initiative, a Patron of the International Business Network, a Patron of the National Education Business Partnership, a Patron of the Tomorrow’s People Junction Project, a member of the National Trust, a Corporate Ambassador and member of the Royal British Legion, a member of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Development Trust, a Non-Executive Director of Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre, a member of FILMBirmingham's Steering Group, President of the Ambassadors for the West Midlands region, a member of the Yorkshire Society and a Freeman of the City of London.
In 1998, as Chairman of the Birmingham Hospice Appeal, which raised £1.5m, he personally raised £218,000 towards their target by cycling from John O'Groats to Lands End.
On 17 April 2005, he raised £191,000 for both Cancer Research UK and UNICEF by running the Flora London Marathon.
He was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 2005 New Year Honours List.
Sir Digby is married to Pat. They live in Marylebone and Warwickshire. He enjoys the theatre, skiing, football, rugby and cricket and has more than a passing interest in military history.

CBI aims

The CBI champions causes favourable to owners of British businesses.

The stated aim of the CBI is to help create and sustain the conditions in which the UK can compete and prosper. Its policies are determined directly by its members.

It also can help the way in which companies can gain financial surport if they are heading to bankruptcy

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Membership

The CBI owes its strength to the size and diversity of its membership. It represents 200,000 businesses based in the UK. Membership includes all sectors of business – retail, financial services, construction, utilities, professional firms, manufacture, agriculture, IT and eBusiness, creative and communications, management, consultancy, transport and tourism.

It speaks for all sizes of business from multi-national organisations to start-up firms. Approximately 85% of the FTSE 100 companies are CBI members and 60% of the FTSE 300.

Most of its larger members and many of the medium-sized and smaller ones operate internationally.

Membership of the CBI is corporate: organisations and companies are members, not the individuals nominated to represent them.

The CBI offers the following benefits to its members:

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Policy and lobbying

·  Being the largest lobbying organisation in the UK, the CBI has a substantial weight to its voice.

·  It also has well established networks across Europe and the rest of the World. No other business organisation has such an extensive network of contacts with government ministers, MPs, civil servants, opinion formers and the media.

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Networking and best practice exchange

·  The best-networked companies are the most successful.

·  Opportunities for members to meet and exchange views and ideas with other companies, particularly those in their own business sector.

·  Discussions of:

o  Business States

o  Management Issues

o  Impending Legislation