Minister for Social Exclusion and Equality

Barbara Roche MP was appointed Minister of State at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister on 29th May 2002. She has responsibility for Social exclusion, homelessness and rough sleepers issues along with the work of the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit. She also looks after the Regional Co-ordination Unit and the Government Offices as well as continuing with her responsibilities for women and equality issues as Minister for Women.

Barbara Roche MP was promoted to the Whips Office in 1994 and became shadow Minister for Small Business in 1995. Her previous Ministerial posts were as Minister of State at the Home Office, with responsibilities for immigration and asylum, nationality, the UK Passport Agency and European matters; Financial Secretary to the Treasury, to which she was appointed on 4 January 1999; and as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Trade and Industry.

Barbara Roche MP was born in 1954 and educated at the Jewish Free School Comprehensive, Camden, and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She was called to the Bar in 1977. She was elected MP for Hornsey and Wood Green in 1992. Mrs Roche is married with one daughter.