Robert Buckland

Sir Robert James Buckland (born 22 September 1968) is a British politician who served as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice from 2019 to 2021.

He later served as Secretary of State for Wales from July to October 2022.

Buckland was born on 22 September 1968 in Llanelli, Wales.

He was educated at Old Road County Primary School (Ysgol yr Hen Heol) and then at St Michael's School, Llanelli (Ysgol Sant Mihangel).

In 1990, he graduated in law from Hatfield College, University of Durham, where he'd been Secretary of the Junior Common Room and President of the Durham Union Society in Michaelmas term 1989; in 1991 called to the bar at the Inner Temple.

Buckland practised as a barrister in Wales from 1992 to 2010, specialising in criminal law in the Crown Court at Swansea, Cardiff, Merthyr and Newport.

Buckland stood as the Conservative Party candidate for Elli ward on Dyfed County Council in May 1993, winning the seat from Labour with a majority of just 3 votes.

It was reported that he was the first Conservative "in living memory" to have been elected in the Llanelli area.

In 1994, Buckland stood unsuccessfully as the Conservative Party candidate for the safe Labour European Parliament seat of South Wales West.

The following year he stood unsuccessfully as the Conservative Party candidate for the safe Labour parliamentary seat of Islwyn in the by-election caused by the appointment of the sitting MP Neil Kinnock as a European Commissioner.

This by-election was held at a time of unpopularity for the Conservative government, and was comfortably won by the Labour candidate Don Touhig, Buckland polling only 3.9% of the vote.

Following local government reorganisation, the Elli Ward became part of the unitary Carmarthenshire County Council and Buckland stood again in 1995 where he lost to the Labour candidate by over 200 votes.

He went on to stand unsuccessfully for the Conservative Party as their candidate for Preseli Pembrokeshire at the 1997 general election.

He was on the Conservative Party list of candidates for Wales at the 1999 European elections, but was again unsuccessful.

In 2005, Buckland was selected as the Conservative Party's prospective Parliamentary candidate for South Swindon, replacing the constituency's former MP Simon Coombs.

At the 2005 general election, Buckland lost to Labour candidate Anne Snelgrove, who polled 17,534 votes to his 16,181, a narrow majority of 1,353 votes.

Following defeat in 2005, Buckland won the South Swindon seat at the 2010 general election with a majority of 3,544 votes.

This represented a swing of 5.51% to the Conservatives.

He obtained 19,687 votes, (41.8% of the total) compared to 16,143 votes for Snelgrove.

He was appointed as a recorder in 2009, sitting as a part-time judge in the Crown Court.

A member of the Conservative Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for South Swindon since 2010.

In 2010, Buckland was elected to the Justice Select Committee.

He chaired the All Party Group on Autism from 2011 to 2014 and was an officer of the all-party group on Speech, Language and Communication.

He was also Chair of the Conservative Human Rights Commission from 2011 to 2014.

In 2012, Buckland along with fellow Tory MP Stuart Andrew, called for prisoners' mobile phones to be destroyed or sold to raise money for victims' charities, saying that mobiles in prison were a "menace" and that selling them would provide a service to the country, as it costs £20,000 a year to store criminals' phones.

They were both supported by Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Legal Aid and Legal Services Jeremy Wright and Shadow Secretary of State for Justice Sadiq Khan.

On 4 December 2012, Buckland was elected Joint Secretary of the influential 1922 Backbench Committee.

He sat on the Standards Committee and the Privileges Committee from 2012 to 2014.

He also served on the Joint Committee on Human Rights from 2013 to 2014 and the Joint Committee on Privacy and Superinjunctions which was convened from 2011 to 2012.

Buckland was Solicitor General for England and Wales from 2014 to 2019 and Minister of State for Prisons from May to July 2019.

He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 2014 on becoming Solicitor General and was elected as a Master of the Bench of Inner Temple.

On 15 July 2014, Buckland was appointed Solicitor General for England and Wales, replacing Oliver Heald as part of a wide-ranging Government reshuffle.

As Solicitor General, Buckland took the Serious Crime Bill 2014 (now the Serious Crime Act 2015) through its Commons stages in Bill Committee.

The Bill contained provisions that, amongst other things, updated the criminal law of child neglect and introduced a criminal offence of coercive control of people within close relationships in a domestic context.

As a backbencher, he had campaigned on these issues.

His appointment as Solicitor General for England and Wales in July 2014 attracted media attention after it was revealed he had been found guilty of professional misconduct by the Bar Standards Board in 2011.

In 2015, he worked with Home Office Minister James Brokenshire to take the Immigration Bill through its Commons stages.

In 2016, he successfully helped to take the Investigatory Powers Bill through its Commons stages.

He was appointed Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor by Boris Johnson in July 2019, serving until the cabinet reshuffle in September 2021.

In July 2022, following the mass resignation of ministers from the government, he was appointed Secretary of State for Wales by Johnson, and continued to serve in the position under Liz Truss; he resigned from the role when new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak took office in October 2022.