Another new appointment has been made within the Department for Education and Skills.

Baroness Ashton, a life peer who was previously the Chair of Hertfordshire Health Authority, has been appointed as Minister within the department.

The Baroness will take up her role alongside the Ministers of State appointed earlier this week. Margaret Hodge takes over from Malcolm Wicks as Minister for Lifelong Learning and Higher Education and Stephen Timms takes over from Estelle Morris as Schools Minister.

In her early career, Baroness Ashton worked in the voluntary, private and public sectors before becoming a Director of Business in the Community (BITC) from 1983-89, where she helped to establish the Employers Forum in Disability and Opportunity 2000. She was seconded from the London regeneration organisation, London First, to the Home Office to contribute to its work on the voluntary sector.