Vera Baird - Other Activities and Points of Interest

Other Activities and Points of Interest

Baird was vice-chairwoman of the Fawcett Society between 1998 and 2001 and has strong links to the organisation. She founded the government funded Gender and Criminal Justice Forum at the Fawcett Society and chaired it's Commission on Women and the Criminal Justice System.

She is a member of the Fabian Society, the Co-operative Party and is a National Patron of the Rape Crisis Foundation. She chairs the Society of Labour Lawyers, the Labour Criminal Justice Forum and is a Steering Committee Member of Labour Women's Network.

She is a member of Newcastle upon Tyne East Labour Party and campaigns with the sixteen Labour Parties which make up the Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner electoral area. She was recently made an honorary member of the Durham Miners Association, the only woman to have that honour.

Baird has written several books concerning rape and women's experiences in court and a book on women murderers. She is currently working on a further publication and is a frequent contributor to a range of websites and magazines. She is also an honorary fellow of St Hilda's College, Oxford and of Teesside University and an honorary professor of London South Bank University.

After her election defeat Baird founded the Astraea Institute for Gender Justice along with feminist criminologist Jill Radford

In June 2010, Baird was banned from driving for six months, having accumulated 12 penalty points on her driving licence. In August 2009, she was caught on camera doing 98 mph on the M4 motorway at Miskin, South Wales, whilst travelling to see an injured friend near Swansea. Baird travelled to Wales to ask the court to vacate the conviction which had occurred in her absence. She then pleaded guilty. She said had not received her summons which magistrates allowed but they did not accept the ban would cause her exceptional hardship. Pontypridd magistrates then re-imposed the six month ban. She was also fined £400.

In November 2011 Baird was appointed Chair of Everywoman Safe Everywhere a Labour Party commission intended to assess the impact of government policy on women's safety in society.