MP’s Advice Surgeries
If you wish to contact me on a matter where you think I may be able to assist you, I hold regular advice surgeries around Hull North. For the convenience of constituents, these surgeries are held
on an appointment-only basis.
When you contact my office, on 01482 319135, to arrange an appointment, they will ask you to complete an information sheet giving brief details of the issue you wish to discuss with me. This is to
allow me to prepare and research any information that I need before I see you and enable my office to take up a matter on your behalf.
Once I have made representations on your behalf, I will contact you again as soon as I receive any replies regarding your case.
The PDF calendar below contains the dates on which I will be holding advice surgeries throughout the current year.
What an MP can and cannot do
The main role of a Member of Parliament is to represent local constituents at Parliament in Westminster. As your MP, it is my duty to represent all the people in Hull North, whatever their diverse
views about many different issues and whether they voted for me or not.
My main job in the House of Commons is to make and scrutinise legislation, attend debates and committees, and generally protect, advocate and promote the interests of Hull North at a national
level.
I also have a role working for you in Hull North, supporting local community groups and publicising local issues. As your local MP, I can help you on certain issues where you are having a
problem, making representations on your behalf and ensuring that your case is clearly presented.
I will always do my best to help wherever and whenever I am able to do so.
In general, I can help with issues over which Parliament, a central government department or agency is responsible. These include:
- Home Office, including Immigration and Nationality Directorate
- Defence and Foreign policy
- Department of Health (but not complaints about individual doctors)
- Department of Work and Pensions
- HM Revenue and Customs
Unfortunately, I am not able to solve every problem.
- I cannot obtain preferential treatment for you or seek to get results outside of the relevant laws or rules.
- I cannot help you with private disputes with other individuals or interfere with decisions made by the courts.
Local Council issues
It is not appropriate for an MP to take up cases in matters for which Hull City Council is responsible and over which I have no power.
If your problem concerns Hull City Council you should contact the relevant council department or service directly. If this does not resolve the matter, you should then approach your local
councillor.
You can contact Hull City Council and councillors on 01482 300300. To find out who your local councillors are, go to http://www.writetothem.com or http://web4.hullcc.gov.uk/akshull/users/public/admin/main.pl?op=ListCurrentMembers.
If, after pursuing the course of action above, you still have a complaint about how the local authority had dealt with your problem, you should consider contacting the Local Government Ombudsman.
See http://www.lgo.org.uk/ for more information.
Immigration and asylum issues
If your problem concerns an immigration or asylum matter, you should approach an organisation such as the Citizens Advice Bureau, as it is not an MP’s role to offer legal advice. Hull’s Citizens
Advice Bureau can be contacted on 01482 224608.
As an MP, I am able to write to the Home Office where there seems to have been an inappropriate delay or failure to respond to your case. In general, the role of an MP is to make representations
once all appeals have been exhausted and there needs to be new and compelling evidence to enable to me intervene.
For more information in this area, see http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/.
Am I your MP?
If you are unsure who the MP is for the area in which you live, you can find your local MP by using http://www.upmystreet.com/commons/l/.
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