Office Standards
I am proud to represent over 73,000 people from the Cramlington and Killingworth constituency and my team and I strive to support and assist constituents on a daily basis.
Members of Parliament are given a set budget for setting up and running their office and my dedicated team work hard to support as many people as possible, as quickly as possible. Each Member of Parliament sets up their own office and, as set out by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, the rules of the House of Commons ‘do not set out how an MP should run their office and MPs do not have an obligation to act on every matter constituents raise with them. The Commissioner has no authority to insist that an MP should respond to correspondence or follow a particular course of action on a constituent’s case’.
The vast majority of people engage in a polite, appropriate manner. I understand that people are often distressed, upset and that circumstances leading up to a people approaching my office can have been frustrating.
Whilst my team and I strive to represent all people who contact the office, I will not tolerate unacceptable behaviour or actions that result in unacceptable or excessive demands on my staff in a way that it prevents them from supporting other people.
Aggressive or abusive behaviour
Residents are often upset and angry about the issues leading to them contacting the office, however, aggression, violence or abuse towards my team will not be tolerated, this includes behaviour or language (whether verbal or written) that may leave people feeling afraid, threatened or abused. It is for example not acceptable to shout or swear at anyone in my office.
Threats against me or my team will be taken extremely seriously and my team may be required to terminate a call, or not respond to correspondence if this is abusive or threatening. If this includes threats of violence or aggression, these will be reported to the appropriate authorities.
Unreasonable demands
I represent over 73,000 people with support from a small team based in Annitsford and Westminster. We strive to represent people in the most appropriate way. There are occasions where specific queries may take longer to respond to.
Whilst the majority of people engaging with the office understand this, there are occasions where individuals are placing unreasonable demands on my team, which impedes the ability for me to represent other residents.
My team will triage all correspondence that comes into the office and seek to deal with this in an appropriate priority taking into account the seriousness and urgency of contact. There are occasions where a specific person may require additional support with an urgent manner.
However, there are occasions where correspondence can be excessive and impede the ability to represent other people fairly, including multiple e-mails per day, persistent e-mails and demands for responses in an unreasonable timeframe, impacting substantially on the ability of the team to support other people in the constituency.
Actions I may take:
In the rare occasions where conduct breaches this policy, I may consider taking a number of actions to protect members of my team and to ensure that they are able to undertake their duties in supporting the majority of people who engage in an appropriate manner. This can include:
- Limiting correspondence and the frequency of responses to ensure that other people are not disadvantaged.
- Appointing a specific point of contact for the constituent or communicating only in writing.
- Reporting to appropriate authorities within Parliament and the Police.
- Restricting or limiting contact.