Baroness Browning steps down

Crime Prevention Minister Baroness Browning is stepping down from the Government on health grounds, Number 10 said today.

Lady Browning, who was brought into the Home Office in May after Baroness Neville-Jones stood down as Security Minister, will be replaced by Lord Henley, previously a junior minister in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Downing Street said.

Home Secretary Theresa May thanked Lady Browning for her work, saying she had "taken forward work to help prevent crime and reduce anti-social behaviour in our communities".

During her time at the Home Office, Baroness Browning, 64, has also urged peers to back the Government's plans for directly-elected police and crime commissioners.

Mrs May said: "I want to thank Baroness Browning for her contribution to Government. In her time at the Home Office she has taken forward work to help prevent crime and reduce anti-social behaviour in our communities and has played a vital role in taking our plans to reform policing and give greater accountability to the public through the Lords.

"I wish her the very best for the future."

She went on: "I'm pleased to welcome Lord Henley to the Home Office and look forward to working with him to deliver our key priorities."

Downing Street added that Lord Taylor of Holbeach, currently a Lord in Waiting, will become a junior minister at Defra while Baroness Stowell of Beeston will become a Baroness in Waiting.

Tory peer Lord Henley entered the House of Lords in 1977 and has held a number of frontbench positions, both in government under Margaret Thatcher and John Major as well as in Opposition.

Source: PA