Helen in Parliament

PROFILE OF YOUR MP IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS

• Vice Chair of the Select Committee on Education and Skills;
• Member of Select Committee on Administration;
• Member of the Standing Orders Committee;
• Members of the Unopposed Bills panel;
• Secretary of All-Party CAFOD group;
• Formerly Secretary of the Labour Party Departmental Committee for Home Affairs and a member of the Labour Party Education and Employment Departmental Committee, Health Departmental Committee and International Development Departmental Committee.

If you are interested in any of the issues Helen has raised in Parliament, or you wish to raise any other matter of concern to you, please contact her office on 01925 232 480, or write to her at Gilbert Wakefield House, 67 Bewsey Street, Warrington, WA2 7JQ or email jonesh@parliament.uk. Details of her Parliamentary Questions and a full text of debates she has spoken in are available, along with the surgery dates for 2006.

In addition to the visits and events she attends in Warrington North, Helen  Jones deals with hundreds of cases brought to her attention by constituents via letter, fax, email, and telephone, or in person at one of her many surgeries. Some of those issues have been taken up locally, but when needed, she has taken a number of issues to Parliament, either directly to Ministers or to the floor of the House of Commons.

Since being elected, Helen Jones has been very active in Parliament, making hundreds of contributions, either by speaking in the House or by verbal or written questions. In addition, she has instigated and supported a number of Early Day Motions including ones on the proposed postal code changes in Warrington, air weapons, trade justice campaign and asthma in schools. Helen has also served on many committees, which scrutinise proposed legislation.

In Parliament, Helen has a number of responsibilities. She has previously worked with Cabinet Minister Charles Clarke, where she helped to co-ordinate delivery of government policies across the North West region. Her particular areas of interest are health and education and she is now on the Select Committee of Education and Skills.

Helen is secretary of the Labour Party Committee for Home Affairs and is a member of the Department Committees for Education and Employment, Health and International Development.

Helen is the sponsor of the Christmas Day Trading Bill, which was introduced to try to ensure employees of large retail outlets are not forced to work on the 25th of December.

Helen has no outside business interest, believing that representing the 72, 000 plus people in Warrington North is a full time job.

Since Helen’s re-election in 2005 she has been extremely active in Parliament, having asked over 100 Parliamentary Questions on a wide range of subjects including:

• Trust Schools
• Warrington Primary Care Trust;
• Health and social care issues;
• Ambulance service and response times;
• Darfur and Sudan;
• Alzheimer’s and NICE drug decision;
• Stroke issues;
• Post-16 education;
• Global poverty;
• Warrington magistrates;
• Bruche Police Training Centre;
• School meals;
• Asperger’s Syndrome;
• Premium rate telephone lines;
• Youth Justice.

In addition she has been called upon to speak twenty times in debates on the floor of the House of Commons on various issues:

• Work & Families Bill;
• Health Bill;
• Truancy:
• Bruche Police Training Centre;
• Education White Paper;
• ID-cards;
• Violent Crime Reduction Bill;
• Drug Intervention Programmes;
• Wheel Clamping