Robin Corbett

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British politician (1933–2012)

title: "Robin Corbett" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1933-births", "2012-deaths", "communications-consultants", "deaths-from-cancer-in-england", "labour-party-(uk)-mps-for-english-constituencies", "labour-party-(uk)-life-peers", "politics-of-dacorum", "uk-mps-1974–1979", "uk-mps-1983–1987", "uk-mps-1987–1992", "uk-mps-1992–1997", "uk-mps-1997–2001", "people-from-hemel-hempstead", "australian-emigrants-to-england", "people-from-fremantle", "people-from-smethwick", "royal-air-force-airmen", "australian-people-of-english-descent", "english-journalists", "people-from-west-bromwich", "australian-emigrants-to-the-united-kingdom", "british-consultants", "life-peers-created-by-elizabeth-ii", "20th-century-royal-air-force-personnel", "military-personnel-from-western-australia", "military-personnel-from-the-west-midlands-(county)"] description: "British politician (1933–2012)" topic_path: "politics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Corbett" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary British politician (1933–2012) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
honorific-prefix	The Right Honourable
name	The Lord Corbett of Castle Vale
image	Lord Corbett.jpg
office	Member of the House of Lords
status	Lord Temporal
termlabel	Life peerage
term_start	5 July 2001
term_end	19 February 2012
office1	Member of Parliament
for Birmingham Erdington
term_start1	9 June 1983
term_end1	14 May 2001
predecessor1	Julius Silverman
successor1	Siôn Simon
office2	Member of Parliament
for Hemel Hempstead
term_start2	10 October 1974
term_end2	7 April 1979
predecessor2	James Allason
successor2	Nicholas Lyell
birth_date	22 December 1933
birth_place	Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia
death_date
death_place	Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England
party	Labour
spouse
(now The Lady Corbett)
children	3
::

Corbett sat in the House of Commons from 1974 to 1979 and then from 1983 to 2001, before being elevated to the House of Lords as a Life Peer.

Early life

Corbett was born in Fremantle, Western Australia, to Marguerite Adele (née Mainwaring) and Thomas William Corbett. His parents had recently moved to Australia from England. His father, working in a foundry and being a mechanical engineer, was a fervent union supporter. His active participation in some protests led to his and his family's deportation back to England in 1935.They resettled in West Bromwich, and Corbett attended Holly Lodge Grammar School in Smethwick, leaving at the age of sixteen. He was called up for two years' national service in the Royal Air Force in 1951. After completing his national service he became a journalist, first for the Birmingham Evening Mail and then for the Daily Mirror. In 1968 he became deputy editor of Farmer's Weekly, then worked for IPC Magazines in 1970, where he stayed until his election to parliament in 1974.

Parliamentary career

Corbett first stood for Parliament at Hemel Hempstead in 1966, and then in a 1967 by-election at West Derbyshire, but was unsuccessful at both attempts.

He was elected Labour member of parliament (MP) for Hemel Hempstead at the October 1974 general election, but he lost the seat at the general election in 1979. He then returned to IPC Magazines, working as a communications consultant until he returned to parliament in the 1983 general election, representing Birmingham Erdington. He held this seat until retiring from the House of Commons at the 2001 general election, when Siôn Simon succeeded him as Labour Member of Parliament for Birmingham Erdington.

In the House of Commons, Corbett served as Opposition Spokesman for Home Affairs (1979–1992), then for National Heritage, Broadcasting and Press until 1995. He was a Labour Party Whip from 1984 until 1987, and Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee from 1999 to 2001. His Private Member's Bill, still law today, granted lifetime anonymity for rape victims in court and media.

House of Lords

Created a Life Peer as Baron Corbett of Castle Vale, of Erdington in the County of West Midlands, on 5 July 2001, his political interests included Home Office, police, civil liberties, the motor industry, manufacturing, disability, children's rights, alternative energy, environment, agriculture, animal welfare, and the press and broadcasting. He was Chairman of the All Party Penal Affairs Group, a parliamentary organisation clerked by the Prison Reform Trust, and a Patron of the Forum on Prisoner Education and UNLOCK, The National Association of Ex-Offenders. He was chairman of the all-party British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom and Chairman of Friends of Cyprus.

Lord Corbett was a vice-president of the Debating Group.

Family

Married to Val Hudson in 1970, they had one daughter, Polly Hudson, a columnist for the Daily Mirror. Corbett also had a daughter and a son from a previous marriage.

Death

Corbett died of lung cancer at his home in Hemel Hempstead on 19 February 2012, aged 78.

Robin Corbett Award

Following Corbett's death in February 2012 and his lifelong interest in prisoners 'learning through doing', his family established a lasting memorial to his work in penal reform. The Robin Corbett Award for Prisoner Rehabilitation was launched in 2013 with the Prison Reform Trust as prisoner rehabilitation legacy.

The Robin Corbett Award funds £10,000 annually to three charities who do the most for prisoner reintegration. The presentation takes place at the House of Lords. Unless ex-offenders are steered in the right direction after release, around 50% will re-offend within two years – that figure plummets to 19% when they have a job. Yet only 12% of firms employ people with criminal convictions who have served their time and need to change direction. www.robincorbettaward.co.uk

This led to The Corbett Network, a coalition of over 90 decision-makers of charities, social enterprises and organisations involved in reintegration working together to persuade more firms to hire returning citizens.

On 11 February 2019 the Corbett Centre for Prisoner Reintegration opened in the centre of Nottingham, operated by the charity Safer Living Foundation. The centre aims to reduce reoffending by supporting ex-prisoners to reintegrate into society.

References

"Corbett, Robin".
{{London Gazette. (10 July 2001)
[http://debatinggroup.org.uk Debating Group] {{webarchive. link. (5 April 2015)
(19 February 2012). "Labour peer Lord Corbett dies, age 78".
"The Robin Corbett Award for Prisoner Rehabilitation 2013; Prison Reform Trust".
(11 February 2019). "Anger from victims of abuse as new centre opens to help 100 sex offenders back into society". Nottinghamshire Live.

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