William Herbert Laming, Baron Laming, (born 19 July 1936) is a British social worker and member of the House of Lords. He served as Convenor of the Crossbench Peers from 2011 to 2015 and as Chairman of Committees from 2015 to 2016. Early life Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Laming studied Applied Social Studies at Durham University in 1960. Social work Laming worked as a probation officer and psychiatric social worker in Nottingham, before moving to Hertfordshire County Council in 1971, becoming director of social services in 1975. In 1990, his department was strongly criticised for its handling of a case that centred on allegations made to Hertfordshire social services by the father of a young girl who was concerned that his daughter was being sexually abused by her mother's boyfriend. The child was interviewed in front of her mother, a violation of official guidelines. Police and social services performed an overnight raid on his house and took his daughter to her mother and her mother's boyfriend. Laming denied him access to an internal inquiry report. In 1995, the Local Government Ombudsman made a finding of 'maladministration with injustice' against the department. Laming was chief inspector of the Social Services Inspectorate from 1991 until 1998. He has worked as an advisor to the Local Government Association, and is a past President of the Association of Directors of Social Services. He is involved with many social services organisations. In 1985, Laming was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He was knighted in 1996 and was created a life peer on 27 July 1998 as Baron Laming, of Tewin in the county of Hertfordshire. In 1999, he was given an honorary Doctor of Science by his old university, Durham. In 2000, he was appointed head of the Harold Shipman inquiry, originally a private inquiry. However, relatives of Shipman's victims wanted a public inquiry, and they won a judicial review, forcing the inquiry to become public. Dame Janet Smith replaced Laming as the chairman. In the same year, he also investigated management in the prison service. In 2001, he chaired the public inquiry into eight-year-old Victoria Climbié's death. Laming's appointment was controversial because of his previous post as head of Hertfordshire county council's social services department. The father of the daughter in the Hertfordshire case said, "I don't see how he has the qualifications or experience to be able