Mark Lazarowicz

Mark Lazarowicz
Member of Parliament for Edinburgh North and Leith
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 June 2001
Preceded by	Malcolm Chisholm
Majority	1,724 (3.6%)
Personal details
Born	(1953-08-08) 8 August 1953 Romford, Essex, England
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour Co-operative
Children	4
Alma mater	University of St Andrews

Mark Lazarowicz, (born 8 August 1953) is a British Labour Co-operative politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Edinburgh North and Leith since 2001. In October 2010, he was appointed as part of the shadow team for the Department for International Development along with Rushanara Ali with Harriet Harman in charge^[1] As of October 2011, his position of Shadow DFID Minister was taken over by Tony Cunningham.

Early life

He graduated from St. Andrews University where he had been Chairman of the St. Andrews University Labour Club with an MA in History in 1976, and the University of Edinburgh with an LLB in Law in 1992.^[2]

City Council

Lazarowicz served as a Labour Councillor on the City of Edinburgh Council from 1980 to 1996, and then from 1999 to 2001.^[3]

Parliamentary career

Mark Lazarowicz stood for Parliament, unsuccessfully, for Edinburgh Pentlands in 1987 and United Kingdom general election, 1992, but was beaten by Malcolm Rifkind each time.

He was elected as Member of Parliament for Edinburgh North and Leith in June 2001 and was re-elected in May 2005 and again in May 2010,^[4] for the now expanded Edinburgh North and Leith constituency.

He is currently a member of the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee. He previously served on the Environmental, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, the Scottish Affairs Committee and the Modernisation Committee.^[3]

Lazarowicz has succeeded in having two Private Member's Bills passed. In 2002 he piloted the Employee Share Schemes Bill through Parliament,^[5][6] and in 2006 the Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Bill,.^[7][8] He won the PRASEG Parliamentarian of the Year Award in 2006 for his work in promoting renewable energy.

In 2008 Lazarowicz lodged a further Private Member's Bill to restrict ship-to-ship oil transfers, with the aim of preventing spillages in the Firth of Forth.^[9] In response, the government introduced regulations to restrict such transfers in April 2010 ^[10] which were then delayed, but eventually were brought into force.^[11][12]

In October 2008 Lazarowicz was made the Prime Minister's Special Representative on Global Carbon Markets and his report on the issue, Global Carbon Trading: a framework for reducing emissions was published in July 2009.^[13]

Expenses

After the Daily Telegraph released details of some MPs' expenses claims in 2009, and in what the paper described as an attempt to head off embarrassing headlines, Lazarowicz announced he would repay half of the more than £5000 expenses he had claimed for legal fees regarding the extension of the lease on his London flat,^[14] saying the amount was "much higher than many of the public would be prepared to accept". Later he reversed his view, stating that his expenses were entirely within the existing parliamentary rules and that a lot of people and fellow MPs had questioned his decision to pay back the money: "Why on earth am I bothering to pay back the money? That's actually the view which has come back from a large number of people I have been in contact with. Having said that I have said I will pay it back, so I'll pay it back, because I actually accept at the end of the day the fundamental principle that MPs shouldn't actually benefit from property they have acquired."^[15] He eventually paid back £2740, having also found he had overclaimed £60 for taxi journeys.^[16]

References

External links

• Mark Lazarowicz official site
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
• BBC Politics