A trained barrister and former Home Office minister, Baroness Scotland was the first black woman to receive silk as a Queen's Counsel.
Born Patricia Janet Scotland on August 19 1955, she entered the Lords as Baroness Scotland of Asthal in 1997.
The peer has worked in several high profile posts including as spokeswoman on women and equality issues and for the Department of Trade and Industry in the Lords and most recently as crime reduction officer at the Home Office.
After a two year stint as parliamentary undersecretary of state at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, she worked as parliamentary secretary at the lord chancellor's office from 2001 to 2003.
From 2002 to 2003 she was an alternate UK government representative of the European Convention, becoming Home Office minister for the criminal justice system and law reform in June 2003.
Her ministerial responsibilities have included antisocial behaviour policy, youth crime, domestic violence, criminal law issues and international affairs.
As a junior minister at the Foreign Office in 2000, she announced the launch of government unit aimed at tackling the problem of forced marriages.
She aligned herself with the ID card scheme, insisting in 2005 that the government would not be "wavering" on controversial plans to introduce biometric data as a means of identification.
After graduating from London University with an LLB honours degree, she was called to the bar in 1977, receiving silk in 1991 and becoming a bencher in 1997.
A former commissioner for racial equality, she has received recognition for her work with several prestigious awards including the House Magazine peer of the year award, Channel 4 peer of the year award and Political Studies Association Parliamentarian of the year award in 2004.
She married Richard Mawhinney in 1985. The couple have two sons.
