The Citizens Advice service helps people resolve their legal, money and other problems by providing free, independent and confidential advice, and by influencing policymakers.
Every Citizens Advice Bureau is a registered charity reliant on trained volunteers and funds to provide these vital services for local communities.
Mark Lazarowicz was elected as Member of Parliament for Edinburgh North and Leith in June 2001 and was re-elected in May 2005, for the expanded Edinburgh North & Leith constituency. Since his election in 2001, he has taken a keen interest in a range of issues including debt and personal finance, climate change and the environment, road safety, international development, and constitutional issues.
He is currently a member of two House of Commons Select Committees - the Environmental Audit Committee and the Modernisation Committee.
Since October 2008, Mark has been the Prime Minister’s Special Representative on Global Carbon Markets and he was responsible for producing a major report on the subject which was published in July of this year.
He chairs the Labour & Co-operative Parliamentary Group and campaigns actively on issues of interest to the cooperative movement such as a more democratically run Network Rail.
Prior to being elected as an MP, Mark worked as an Advocate at the Scottish Bar and is a former leader of Edinburgh City Council. He lives with his family in Edinburgh.
Before his election in 1997, Colin Breed spent 10 years in Investment Banking, specialising in Venture Capital and Corporate finance.
Appointed as a Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson in 2006, Colin brings broad experience of business and economic matters to the portfolio.
Colin sat on the DEFRA select committee, the Cetacean By-Catch Sub-Committee and was a member of the Standing Committee that considered the Animal Health Bill. He currently sits on the Treasury Select Committee, which has regular weekly meetings. Colin is a lay member of the General Medical Council and is an executive member of the Council for the Advancement of Arab and British Understanding (CAABU).
Colin is currently the Treasurer of the All Parliamentary Party Cricket Group and Vice-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Party Groups on Ethiopia and Palestine, and the All Party Parliamentary Methodist Group.
Andrew was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for Chichester in the Andrew was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for Chichesterin the May 1997 General Election. Prior to this, Andrew was adviser to successive Chancellors of the Exchequer and a Senior Economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Andrew currently serves on the Public Accounts Commission, the Justice Committee, the Treasury Select Committee and the Reform Committee. From November 2003 to May 2005, he served as a Shadow Minister for Economic Affairs. He is also the Founder and Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition.
Since entering the House Andrew has published several pamphlets including: Sense on EMU (European Policy Forum, 1998); Reforming the Lords: a Conservative Approach (Conservative Policy Forum, 1998), The Conservative Party’s proposals for the funding of political parties, The Conservative Party (2006); and An Elected Second Chamber: A Conservative View (co-author, UCL, 2009).
Born in Arbroath and raised in Scotland, Michael Weir played an active role in SNP politics whilst at university, taking on the role of President of the Aberdeen University Scottish Nationalist Association. He is a long-standing member of the SNP, having joined the Party in 1976.
He joined parliament in 2001 and was soon appointed to the Scottish Affairs Select Committee. He is currently Work and Pensions, Energy and Trade and Industry Spokesperson for the SNP and is a member of the Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill Committee and the Energy and Climate Change Committee.
David Drew is a Labour backbencher, who was first elected to the marginal Stroud constituency in 1997.
He is a member of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, which he has sat on since 2001. David has a long-standing interest in environmental affairs which saw him sponsor a private members Bill on microgeneration in 2008. In March 2009 he was recognised as the 'Parliamentarian of the year' by Inland Waterways.
He is also active on a wide range of APPGs and is Chair of the Associate Parliamentary Group on Sudan. His other interests include housing, health, human rights and rural affairs. Indeed he is Chair of the Labour group of rural MPs.
Despite becoming MP 10 years ago, he has remained a town councillor and is now in his 21st year of service. He continues to take these duties extremely seriously.
