Tag: Parliament

MP acts to resolve parking deadlock

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Edinburgh North and Leith Labour MP Mark Lazarowicz is launching a new Private Members’ Bill this week to resolve the deadlock which has delayed new legislation in the Scottish Parliament to ban irresponsible parking.

Inconsiderate parking can be a major headache for people like wheelchair users, the visually impaired and parents with children in pushchairs, and the Bill would end uncertainty as to whether the Scottish Parliament has the power to legislate on this issue after a Bill to introduce a Scotland-wide ban was delayed due to conflicting legal advice.

Mark Lazarowicz said: “This Bill would ensure that the Scottish Government has the power to make a real difference to our streets by tackling irresponsible parking that can block pavements, kerbs and crossings and choke the flow of traffic.

“It can be dangerous where for instance it pushes people into the road to get past or impedes a wheelchair user from crossing a street because someone had thoughtlessly blocked a dropped kerb.

“A Bill in the Scottish Parliament has had its progress delayed because of conflicting legal advice as to whether the power to legislate to tackle irresponsible parking is still reserved or not.”

“I want to cut through that with this Bill which would specifically devolve this power once and for all to make a practical difference to the streets in our towns and cities in Scotland.”

Sandra White MSP has proposed a Bill to introduce a Scotland-wide ban on irresponsible parking. The Bill has support from a wide range of organisations such as Guide Dogs Scotland and Capability Scotland and has cross-party support in the Scottish Parliament.

Mark was one of 20 MPs who won the right to introduce a Private Members’ Bill in the draw for Bills which recently took place. He will introduce the Responsible Parking (Scotland) Bill tomorrow ( Wednesday).

The Bill has already won the support of MPs from other parties and Mark’s move has also been welcomed by Sandra White MSP.

The North and Leith MP must now wait to see if his Bill will go through. He said: “Although the fact that there are controversial Private Members’ Bills ahead of mine in the queue this year will make it a challenge to get mine through, my Bill has all party support which I believe gives it a reasonable chance of making progress.”

 

Westminster congratulations for Professor Peter Higgs

Mark Lazarowicz MP put down a Parliamentary motion, an ‘Early Day Motion’, last week to congratulate Edinburgh’s Professor Peter Higgs on the award of this year’s Nobel Prize for Physics. Among those supporting the North and Leith MP’s motion were fellow Edinburgh MPs Alistair Darling and Mike Crockart. 

Professor Peter Higgs, who is now Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Edinburgh, was awarded the prize in recognition of his theoretical discovery of the origins of mass of the fundamental particles that make up the world. His theoretical work first published in 1964 was confirmed in July 2012 – almost half a century later – by the Hadron Collider based in Switzerland showing just how groundbreaking his work was.

A shy and modest man, Professor Higgs shares the prize with a Belgian physicist,François Englert, who also published on the same subject in the summer of 1964.

Mark Lazarowicz said: “Professor Higgs’ achievement has at last received the long awaited recognition of the award of the Nobel Prize, and as the MP for the constituency where Professor Higgs lives I wanted to make sure that achievement and award was marked by Parliament also.”

Professor Higgs has announced that he will formally retire next year, when he is 85.

Collider

Local MP backs action on pre-payment meters

Mark Lazarowicz MP (pictured above) backs action on fuel poverty to help cut bills of pre-payment meter users

With steep rises in energy prices on the way this winter, Mark Lazarowicz MP for Edinburgh North and Leith, is backing a new Bill to make it easier for customers who use pre-payment meters (PPMs) for their gas and electricity to switch suppliers.

Currently, users can switch providing they are not more than £200 in debt – the Bill would raise that to £300 benefitting over 200,000 people.  Mark said:  “This Bill matters because pre-payment meter users pay more for their gas or electricity even though they are over twice as likely to be in fuel poverty than those who pay by direct debit.  People often use PPMs because they are trying to budget responsibly – in some cases precisely because they were in debt – but debts for fuel bills can take a long time to pay off when someone can only afford to pay off a small amount each week. The Government is always urging consumers to switch – this Bill would make it easier for PPM users to do so and they are the people who could benefit most.”

The number of pre-payment users has risen steadily in recent years either as a conscious choice or because suppliers install a meter where someone is in debt to them. Last year over 15% of electricity customers in the UK used PPMs (4.1 million) and 13% of gas customers (2.9 million).

A recently published study by Consumer Focus found that one in six pre-payment users cut off their own energy supply in order to make ends meet – a measure of how carefully they are budgeting.  Traditionally pre-payment users have paid much more for their gas and electricity than those who pay by direct debit or standard credit.

There have been improvements more recently due to action by the regulator, Ofgem, so that the prices PPM users pay better reflect the costs of installing and maintaining the meters, but further action is needed to ensure PPM users get a fair deal.