Baroness Noakes (Conservative) Entered Parliament on 12 July 2000. Shadow Minister for the Treasury and for Work & Pensions. Use to work for a Big Accountancy firm (KPMG). She led KPMG's international government practice. She was seconded to act as Director of Finance and Corporate Information on the NHS Management Executive she was also seconded to HM Treasury.

Most of her questions in the Lords have been from an Accounting point of view. For example with the ID card bill she asked many questions trying to find out information about costs and how the government had come to those figures.

Issues

Identity cards

In January of 2006 she moved, with Lord Phillips, an amendment ID card bill which led to the scheme being defeated in the House of Lords and sent back to House of Commons.

Conservative Baroness Noakes said the government had given "absolutely no information" about the scheme's start-up costs. It was unprecedented that legislation with such major consequences should go forward without Parliament being able to scrutinise the financial impact

Government Spending (Website) Bill

"There has to be a website, it has to be publicly available, and it has to be searchable. In essence, once it is up and running, citizens can go online to find out, for example, how much the government have spent with individual suppliers such as EDS, or on particular things, such as travel and entertainment."

Links

Baroness Noakes TheyWorkForYou.com
Baroness Noakes Wikipedia
Baroness Noakes Conservative Party profile
Voting Record

News

2006-10-09 - Spy Blog - NIR and ID Card scheme "Dobson" report on cost: Summary: It was the lack of detail in this RIA which lead the Conservative Baroness Noakes (who use to work for a Big Accountancy firm) to propose a full cost benefit analysis of the scheme to be presented to Parliament by the Auditor General, back in January 2006.

2006-01-17 - The Register - 'Tell us the truth about ID costs' - Lords harpoon the ID Bill: Author: John Lettice; Summary: And given the Liberal stance it is significant that Liberal peer Lord Phillips, who moved the costings amendment along with Baroness Noakes for the Tories, referred specifically to the Government's withholding of financial information about the scheme as "constitutionally wrong"

2006-01-17 - BBC - Ministers 'press on' on ID cards: Summary: As the Lords began the report stage of the Identity Bill, Conservative Baroness Noakes said the government had given "absolutely no information" about the scheme's start-up costs. It was unprecedented that legislation with such major consequences should go forward without Parliament being able to scrutinise the financial impact, she said.

2006-01-16 - The Guardian - Lords deal blow to ID cards: Author: Matthew Tempest; Summary: In language stronger than is usual in the upper chamber, Tory peer Baroness Noakes, who was behind the amendment, said peers had "failed to get any useful information out of the government" regarding detailed costings.