Ruth Beatrice Henig, Baroness Henig Commander of the Order of the British Empire, Doctor of Laws is a British academic historian and Labour Party politician.
Education
Henig was educated at Wyggeston Girls" Grammar School in Leicester, and at Bedford College, London, where she graduated in 1965 with a Bachelor of Arts in history. She was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy in history from Lancaster University in 1978, where she was a lecturer in Modern European History.
Career
Her parents were Kurt and Elfrieda Munzer, Jewish refugees who came to the United Kingdom from the Netherlands in 1940. Their son, Simon Henig, is leader of Durham County Council, chair of the North East Combined Authority, and a lecturer in politics at Sunderland University. She remarried in 1994 to Jack Johnstone.
She has written several books and pamphlets on 20th-century international history.
She served as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities from 1997 to 2000, and in April 2006, she was one of six people to receive the first Honorary Fellowships of Lancaster University. She was also Chair of Lancashire Police Authority from 1995 to 2005 and chair of the Association of Police Authorities from 1997 to 2005, when she became the Association"s president
At the 1992 general election, she stood as Labour candidate for her husband"s former parliamentary seat of Lancaster. She failed to unseat the sitting Conservative Member of Parliament Elaine Kellett-Bowman, but reduced the Conservative majority to just under 3,000, down from 6,500 in 1987.
Henig was awarded a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2000 for services to policing, and in 2002 was appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant for Lancashire.
She was made a life peer on 8 June 2004 as Baroness Henig, of Lancaster in the County of Lancashire. In an industry first, the prize, awarded to the most person making the most notable contribution to the security industry in the preceding year was shared with Don Randall Administration Member of the Order of the British Empire, the head of security to the Bank of England. lieutenant was judged that Baroness Henig"s contributions to the industry as Chair of the Security Industry Authority in overseeing the regulatory overhaul and building of a new and modern, fit-for-purpose regulatory regime made he an outstanding candidate.
On 20 December 2006 the Home Secretary Doctor John Reid Member of Parliament appointed Lady Henig as Chairman of the Security Industry Authority (aka the “SIA”), a non-departmental public body tasked with the regulation of the private security industry.
Having stepped down as Chair from the SIA after six years in March 2013, the Baroness continues to work towards to build a unified voice for the industry with her work for the British Security Institute Association. She now holds a non-executive direction position with United Kingdom firm SecuriGroup.
Lady Henig"s main leisure activity is playing Bridge, having played for Lancashire since the early 1990s, and currently for the House of Lords team Henig is also a keen football fan, supporting Leicester City Football Club.
Membership
Henig was married in 1966 to fellow-academic Stanley Henig, who was then a Labour Member of Parliament (Member of Parliament). Henig was a Labour member of Lancashire County Council from 1981 to 2005, serving as the Council"s chair from 1999 to 2000. She was also a member of the National Criminal Justice Board from 2003 to 2005.