Constituents' concerns
My caseworkers and I deal with a large number of problems, covering a very wide range of issues, raised by constituents. Since I was first elected in May 1997 we have been involved in 20,707 separate cases.
This year we have had 416 so far. Most of these I can do something about. Sadly, sometimes I cannot (see 'What I can, and cannot, do for you as your MP').
To give you an idea of what concerns constituents most, this year's cases are grouped into broad categories below. Lower down you will find the same breakdown for the past eleven years' worth of cases. Cases per year are indicated on the graph below.
| Constituents' cases so far this year * | ||
| Case category | '08 cases | Percent |
| Health (local and national hospitals, waiting lists ...) | 87 | 20.9% |
| Environment (GM crops, foods, conservation ...) | 52 | 12.5% |
| Foreign Affairs (immigration, asylum, Iraq, other international) | 45 | 10.8% |
| Local authorities (SBC, HCC, maintenance, planning, regions ...) | 36 | 8.7% |
| Parliamentary (Labour Party, gallery tickets, ombudsman ...) | 34 | 8.2% |
| Transport (includes parking, road safety, etc) | 23 | 5.5% |
| Trade and industry (trade justice, fair trade, employment ...) | 22 | 5.3% |
| Personal/voluntary (private mail, offers of assistance ...) | 22 | 5.3% |
| Education (local and 'super schools', children's issues ...) | 16 | 3.8% |
| Crime (police, prevention, neighbourhood watch ...) | 15 | 3.6% |
| Animals and hunting (hunting, animal experiments ...) | 15 | 3.6% |
| Culture/Leisure | 14 | 3.4% |
| Youth (youth nuisance, general youth issues, facilities ...) | 13 | 3.1% |
| Incorrectly directed (requests incorrectly addressed to me) | 8 | 1.9% |
| Treasury (taxes, rebates, complaints ...) | 5 | 1.2% |
| Child Support Agency (claims, disputes, delays …) | 4 | 1.0% |
| Religion | 3 | 0.7% |
| Neighbours (disputes, behaviour …) | 2 | 0.5% |
| Housing (allocations, waiting lists, zoning …) | 0 | 0.0% |
| Pensions and benefits (allowances, grants, queries …) | 0 | 0.0% |
| Threatening or peculiar letters | 0 | 0.0% |
| Charity issues (organisations, assistance …) | 0 | 0.0% |
| Citizen's Advice Bureau | 0 | 0.0% |
| * As of 29 February 2008. | 416 | 100.0% |
| Constituents' cases to date * | |||||||||||
| Case category | '97-99 | '00 | '01 | '02 | '03 | '04 | '05 | '06 | '07 | 08 | Totals |
| Foreign Affairs | 241 | 143 | 177 | 101 | 431 | 194 | 459 | 166 | 432 | 45 | 2,389 |
| Health | 347 | 245 | 175 | 136 | 250 | 183 | 290 | 252 | 410 | 87 | 2,375 |
| Local Authorities | 273 | 85 | 126 | 142 | 372 | 241 | 203 | 175 | 248 | 36 | 1,901 |
| Housing | 270 | 103 | 155 | 151 | 167 | 134 | 220 | 232 | 259 | 0 | 1,691 |
| Education | 281 | 87 | 128 | 83 | 125 | 217 | 204 | 174 | 25 | 16 | 1,340 |
| Trade/Industry | 119 | 142 | 56 | 113 | 200 | 146 | 131 | 173 | 262 | 22 | 1,364 |
| Pension/benefits | 317 | 135 | 77 | 73 | 89 | 57 | 183 | 124 | 220 | 0 | 1,275 |
| Parliamentary | 100 | 121 | 60 | 89 | 105 | 175 | 207 | 150 | 183 | 34 | 1,224 |
| Transport | 132 | 73 | 70 | 78 | 133 | 252 | 86 | 91 | 180 | 23 | 1,118 |
| Environment | 171 | 80 | 42 | 49 | 77 | 90 | 124 | 270 | 149 | 52 | 1,104 |
| Animals/hunting | 294 | 73 | 61 | 56 | 108 | 98 | 84 | 103 | 62 | 15 | 954 |
| Crime | 115 | 56 | 79 | 37 | 31 | 33 | 96 | 95 | 327 | 15 | 884 |
| Culture/leisure | 48 | 58 | 27 | 19 | 52 | 35 | 402 | 60 | 64 | 14 | 779 |
| Treasury | 93 | 64 | 55 | 30 | 66 | 39 | 33 | 36 | 50 | 5 | 471 |
| Youth | 59 | 11 | 13 | 11 | 14 | 132 | 52 | 40 | 89 | 13 | 434 |
| CSA | 91 | 36 | 18 | 31 | 31 | 27 | 24 | 50 | 50 | 4 | 362 |
| Wrong MP | 5 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 19 | 59 | 66 | 112 | 50 | 8 | 331 |
| Personal | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 46 | 163 | 22 | 231 |
| Religion | 8 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 45 | 13 | 119 | 3 | 201 |
| Neighbours | 11 | 14 | 15 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 35 | 44 | 33 | 2 | 160 |
| Threatening/odd | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 9 | 11 | 11 | 5 | 0 | 51 |
| Charity | 1 | 15 | 0 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 38 |
| CAB | 3 | 9 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 30 |
| 2,984 | 1,557 | 1,340 | 1,225 | 2,284 | 2,132 | 2,964 | 2,419 | 3,386 | 416 | 20,707 | |
| * As of 29 February 2008. Cases for 1997 – 1999 are combined. | |||||||||||
