Lynda MP
The most prominent activity of an MP is speaking in debates in the chamber of the House of Commons and questioning
Ministers. But this is only a small part of an MP's work. Support for issues can be registered through Early Day Motions
but much serious and time consuming work is done in Committee.
An MP also works on behalf of the electorate in the constituency. She can lend her support, send out press releases,
lobby organisations and therefore generate publicity for local issues. She will also hold regular 'surgeries' and do
casework on behalf of individual constituents. Much of this work is confidential.
A Member of Parliament can investigate matters relating to Parliament or Central Government. They include:
Inland Revenue;
Customs and Excise;
Department of National Savings;
The Land Registry;
Immigration and Nationality;
Post Office;
Passport Offices;
Prisons;
Health - including hospitals and the NHS (but not complaints about individual doctors);
Social Security - including pensions and National Insurance;
Education - including school closures and grants (but not day to day running of schools);
Employment Service - including Job Centres and unemployment office;
Training and Enterprise Councils;
Department of Transport and related organisations such as DVLC and Traffic Area Offices;
Local Authority - dustbins, street cleaning, housing repairs, tenancy matters, playing fields, social services
(but you must first exhaust avenues of complaint through your local councillor).
In certain cases your MP can refer your complaint to government ministers or to the Parliamentary Ombudsman. Your
MP will try to give advice on any problem you have but there are some problems that she cannot investigate. They include:
Private disputes between individuals;
Decisions made by the Courts.
Most recent appearances in Parliament
(sourced from www.theyworkforyou.com)
Business,
Innovation and Skills: Graduate Job Prospects (16 Jul 2009)
Lynda Waltho: What steps he is taking to assist students graduating in the summer of 2009 to find employment.
Business,
Innovation and Skills: Graduate Job Prospects (16 Jul 2009)
Lynda Waltho: Recently, there was an announcement of 1,000 new jobs, training places and internships in the
west midlands, and young people, their parents and their lecturers in my constituency and in the wider west midlands
certainly welcome that. In Dudley, however, we are already suffering the effects of a botched school closure programme
and a failure to take up Building Schools for the Future. What...
Opposition
Day — [15th Allotted Day]: Young People in the Recession (6 Jul 2009)
Lynda Waltho: I want to go back to an earlier point. I was impressed when the hon. Gentleman gave the Government
credit for increasing apprenticeships vastly. I am desperately looking through my notes—I cannot find the figures—but
I know that we are up to about 250,000. We need to compare that with 1997, when I was teaching young people about to
leave school in the run-up to 1997. I was...
Stourbridge
Glass Collection (18 Jun 2009)
Lynda Waltho: I appreciate what the Minister is saying about that relationship, but in a case where a council
appears not to be acting in the best interests of the collection or of local people, there must be something that the
responsible Minister can do; otherwise such a council will just get away with it. Dudley council has got away with a
lot of other decisions. Local decision making is bad, and local...
Written
Answers — Business, Innovation and Skills: Social Mobility (11 Jun 2009)
Lynda Waltho: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what policies of
his Department have objectives to increase social mobility.
Oral Answers
to Questions — Communities and Local Government: Topical Questions (2 Jun 2009) has video
Lynda Waltho: I know that my right hon. Friend is aware of the great need for regeneration in Stourbridge,
and of the series of public meetings that I have recently conducted with business and local people on that topic and
on the recession. At our last meeting, people were greatly excited by the announcement of a fund for temporary use of
empty shops. Can she elaborate on that, and tell me how we can...
Written
Answers — Home Department: Crimes of Violence: Females (1 Jun 2009)
Lynda Waltho: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions she has had with (a) the
Secretary of State for Health and (b) the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills on their Departments'
contributions to (i) her Department's consultation on Together We Can End Violence Against Women and Girls and (ii)
her Department's forthcoming national strategy on Violence...
Points
of Order: Policing and Crime Bill (19 May 2009)
Lynda Waltho: Indeed. I intend to say more about that later. Optional reforms would reduce the burden on local
authorities that chose to adopt the new controls. The increased costs of enforcing the new clause would arise when an
application was made. However, the costs of the process would be absorbed by licensing fees, and incurred by lap-dancing
club operators rather than local authorities. That...
Points
of Order: Policing and Crime Bill (19 May 2009)
Lynda Waltho: They ought to welcome it, but of course they do not, because they prefer an uneven mixture of
provision enabling them to exploit loopholes. Their industry has a history of exploiting loopholes and gaining as a
result, and I do not expect their approach to change. In its current form, the Bill exempts premises that provide lap
dancing less frequently than once a month from requiring a sex...
Points
of Order: Policing and Crime Bill (19 May 2009)
Lynda Waltho: Indeed. The Minister spoke earlier about possible Department for Culture, Media and Sport plans
to give councillors a voice. That—a community voice—is what has been missing. If the TEN system is looked
at across the board, we will get what I and many of my colleagues started out in politics to support: a voice for local
people. That is what has been missing.
Points
of Order: Policing and Crime Bill (19 May 2009)
Lynda Waltho: That is absolutely the case. In conclusion, I believe that the removal of the frequency-based
exemption and universal application are crucial to ensure that these welcome reforms to lap-dancing club licensing deliver
real and robust change, and I urge my hon. Friend the Minister to revisit the area covered by the amendments, if not
here then in another place.
Points
of Order: Policing and Crime Bill (19 May 2009)
Lynda Waltho: Many of us have had problems with lap-dancing clubs in our constituencies. The arguments were
well rehearsed at length in Committee, so I will not go over them again. I would like to speak to amendments 194, 199
and Government amendment 54. We have had trouble in our constituencies because lap-dancing clubs are currently licensed
solely under the Licensing Act 2003. Those clubs share the same...
Points
of Order: New Clause 22 — Penalty for contravening notice relating to encrypted information (19
May 2009)
Lynda Waltho: I welcome much of what my hon. Friend has said, but my difficulty is that Dudley has been particularly
timid in using the current licensing law. For instance, when a club asks for a later licence, it is granted, then another
and another, because the council is frightened to death of being taken to court. We have had so much trouble with lap
dancing, particularly in Stourbridge, and my worry...
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2009-05-19a.1423.0&s=speaker%3A11845#g1435.1(19
May 2009)
Lynda Waltho: Indeed. I intend to say more about that later. Optional reforms would reduce the burden on local
authorities that chose to adopt the new controls. The increased costs of enforcing the new clause would arise when an
application was made. However, the costs of the process would be absorbed by licensing fees, and incurred by lap-dancing
club operators rather than local authorities. That...
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2009-05-19a.1396.8&s=speaker%3A11845#g1413.2(19
May 2009)
Lynda Waltho: I welcome much of what my hon. Friend has said, but my difficulty is that Dudley has been particularly
timid in using the current licensing law. For instance, when a club asks for a later licence, it is granted, then another
and another, because the council is frightened to death of being taken to court. We have had so much trouble with lap
dancing, particularly in Stourbridge, and my worry...
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2009-05-18a.1187.3&s=speaker%3A11845#g1187.4 (18
May 2009)
Lynda Waltho: What funding her Department has allocated to sexual assault referral centres for 2009-10.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2009-05-18a.1187.3&s=speaker%3A11845#g1187.6 (18
May 2009)
Lynda Waltho: I welcome that fantastic news about funding, but when I met women from Women's Aid a few weeks
ago they were concerned that funding, although welcome, may be diverted from rape crisis centres and that they will
continually have to reapply for funding from different pots of money. Will my hon. Friend reassure me that that will
not happen? After all, rape crisis centres were set up for women,...
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2009-04-29b.287.0&s=speaker%3A11845#g292.0 (29
Apr 2009)
Lynda Waltho: I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Dumfries and Galloway (Mr. Brown) on securing this
debate. I should like to talk about a man for whom I have a great deal of admiration. He has already been mentioned.
His name is Frank Foley, but some refer to him as the "British Schindler". Frank was remarkable. We in Stourbridge
like to think of him as a son of Stourbridge—he retired...
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2009-04-28c.270649.h&s=speaker%3A11845#g270649.q0 (28
Apr 2009)
Lynda Waltho: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many primary care trusts restrict access to fertility
services if a person or their partner has a child from a current relationship or any previous relationship.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2009-04-28c.270658.h&s=speaker%3A11845#g270658.q0 (28
Apr 2009)
Lynda Waltho: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many primary care trusts funded only one fresh cycle
of IVF in 2008.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2009-04-27a.556.1&s=speaker%3A11845#g556.2 (27
Apr 2009) has video
Lynda Waltho: What recent discussions he has had with local authorities on proposals to abolish appeals panels
for excluded children.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2009-04-27a.556.1&s=speaker%3A11845#g556.4 (27
Apr 2009) has video
Lynda Waltho: I thank my hon. Friend for that answer. I am particularly concerned about talk, especially from
the Opposition Benches, about stopping these panels. They are a particular safeguard for children with special needs,
who we know are three times more likely to be excluded. Will she assure me, the Council for Disabled Children and the
National Children's Bureau that this Government and the...
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2009-04-27a.270648.h&s=speaker%3A11845#g270648.q0 (27
Apr 2009)
Lynda Waltho: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what counselling services are available on the NHS for
couples seeking NHS-funded infertility treatment.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2009-04-20a.1.3&s=speaker%3A11845#g1.4 (20
Apr 2009) has video
Lynda Waltho: How many times temporary event notices have been issued for events organised by lap-dancing clubs
in the past 12 months; and if he will make a statement.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2009-04-20a.1.3&s=speaker%3A11845#g1.6 (20
Apr 2009) has video
Lynda Waltho: I thank my hon. Friend for that answer, although I am disappointed by it. He may or may not be
aware that local councils' licensing offices are getting more and more concerned about temporary event notices because
they are being used increasingly by lap-dancing clubs, and also bars and pubs; one notice can be applied for per month.
One owner of a lap-dancing club told me that the notices...
Other appearances in Parliament
An archive of previous parliamentary contributions can be found here.
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