Charlie Falconer was a commercial barrister for 25 years, specialising in industrial relations and commercial cases. He was involved in many of the most significant cases of the day – the Miners’ strike, the Times industrial disputes and the Maxwell litigation.
In 1997, having been a lifetime supporter of the Labour Party, he joined the Blair government as Solicitor General, and went to the Lords. His remit included the Crown Prosecution Service, and appearing in court for the Government in its most difficult cases.
Within a year he had moved to the Cabinet Office where Falconer became part of the team around the Prime Minister. He was involved in a whole range of issues which faced the government – for example Kosovo, the petrol crisis, employment law changes and, most notoriously, keeping the Dome open throughout 2000. In 2001, after the general election, he became Housing, Planning and Regeneration Minister and in 2002 he became Criminal Justice Minister.
In 2003, he became Lord Chancellor, with the remit of abolishing the office. He concluded, pretty quickly, that the aims of abolition could be achieved through reform not abolition. In conjunction with the then Lord Chief Justice he worked out a detailed new relationship between the judiciary and the executive, which was embodied in the Constitutional Reform Act 2005.
He became the first Lord Chancellor to chair the National Criminal Justice Board. He championed the Human Rights Act, always seeking to ensure that it was being applied with common sense, and oversaw the introduction of the Freedom of Information legislation into this country.
In 2007 he became the first Secretary of State for Justice, bringing together courts, prisons and criminal justice policy for the first time.
