The Home Secretary, the Rt Hon Charles Clarke, is due to visit the University of Birmingham on Tuesday March 14 to deliver a high-profile address to the School of Law.
The visit will make up part of the university's sixth Issues in Criminal Justice series of lectures. Mr Clarke's speech, entitled: Protecting the Public and Reducing Reoffending, will take place at 5pm in the School of Law at the Edgbaston campus.
The annual lectures, which focus on the most pertinent and problematic issues in criminal justice today, last year featured speeches by other acclaimed names in the field of law, including The RT Hon The Lord Goldsmith QC, Attorney General and Prof Graham Zellick, Chairman of the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
Mr Clarke has been Home Secretary since December, 2004. Born in 1950, he was educated at Highgate School in London and obtained an Honours degree in maths and economics from Kings College, Cambridge. His wide-ranging knowledge of local government includes time spent as chair of the housing committee and vice-chair of economic development for the London borough of Hackney. Having worked on the staff of former Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock, Mr Clarke (before becoming an MP) was head of a public affairs management consultancy.
The Issues in Criminal Justice series is now firmly established as an unmissable occasion for students, professionals and practitioners of law to engage in high-level debate on the shape and structure of the criminal justice system.
Past speakers include Lord Falconer, Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs and Lord Chancellor; Marcel Berlins, journalist and commentator, and Sir David Ramsbotham as HM Inspector of Prisons.
The School of Law would like to issue an open invitation to members of the public, practitioners and professionals throughout the criminal justice system to join audiences for the sixth series, beginning with Mr Clarke's address.
For further information about the Issues in Criminal Justice lecture programme, please contact Kelly Chilton, School of Law, University of Birmingham.
ENDS
Further information to the media:
University of Birmingham Press Office. Tel: 0121 415 8134. Email: a.j.dingley@bham.ac.uk