Members of Parliament are elected to the House of Commons to represent the interests and concerns of all the people who live in their constituency, whether they voted for them at the General Election or not. They are only able to deal with issues raised by people who live in their constituency, called constituents.
They split their time between working in Parliament and working in the constituency. In Parliament, MPs spend their time fighting for the interests of their constituents, attending debates, scrutinising and voting on legislation, and attending meetings. In the constituency, MPs hold advice surgeries for their constituents to come and talk to them about local issues and problems, attend meetings and community events, as well as visiting local organisations and businesses.
Members of Parliament are able to help with all matters for which Parliament or central government is responsible. When a constituent writes to Dominic Grieve, Mr Grieve will write to the relevant department or official or the Minister involved. Many problems are solved in this way.
Dominic Grieve does not have any jurisdiction over local Council decisions. However, Dominic Grieve can write to a local Council and ask them to look into a problem or to reconsider an issue.
Dominic Grieve always welcomes hearing from his constituents about issues of national importance, and seeks to personally reply to individually written communications from constituents. We encourage constituents to write personally to Dominic Grieve, rather than send pro-forma campaign emails. In order to ensure he focuses his time on helping his constituents and his parliamentary work, it is not always possible for Dominic Grieve to reply to members of the general public living outside his constituency.