Baroness Scott of Needham Market

Ros Scott was appointed a life peer in 2000 and sits on the Liberal Democrat benches as Baroness Scott of Needham Market.

Ros is an influential figure in local government. She was a Liberal Democrat councillor in Suffolk from 1991 to 2005, serving at both District and County level. Suffolk County Council was in joint Lib Dem/Labour control from 1993 to 2005, and Ros held a number of positions on the Council, including Group Leader.

She was appointed to the Local Government Association Transport Executive in 1997, and became Chair in 2001. Ros represented UK local government in Europe as a member of the Committee of the Regions from 1997 to 2001. She was a member of the Board of the public sector regulator The Audit Commission until she became the Party’s front bench spokesman on local government in 2005.

Ros came into the Lords in May 2000 and went to work immediately on the Transport Bill and the Countryside Bill.  She continues to work on transport issues in the Lords, but focuses mainly on her work as frontbench spokesman for the Department of Local Government and Communities. She is also a member of the Delegated Powers Sub Committee, an influential behind-the-scenes body which scrutinises all Government legislation to ensure that the powers which are delegated from Parliament to Ministers are appropriate.

Ros has a variety of interests outside Parliament and is much in demand as a speaker to outside organisations. She is a member of the think-tank, The Commission for Integrated Transport, and a non executive director of Entrust, the Landfill Tax regulator. Ros is a non executive director of The Lloyds Register, the first woman Board member in the Company’s 200 year history.

Ros is very active within the Liberal Democrat Party, a regular attendee at conference and in demand as a speaker at constituency events. She was previously a member of the Federal Executive and has just been elected to the Federal Finance Committee. During the General Election, Ros was a member of the core campaign team as head of the group organising the programme of constituency tours and visits.

Ros lives in Needham Market, Suffolk and has two adult children, Sally and Jamie. She is a regular cinema goer, enjoys cooking and travelling and sings regularly with an a capella group based in London.