Alan represents Nottingham South, a constituency of nearly 75,000 electors. It is a wedge of the City of Nottingham extending from the Victoria Centre and the central shopping areas of Nottingham out to the Southern boundary of the Clifton estate - once the largest council estate in Europe - and the western edges of Nottingham University and Wollaton.

The constituency includes two universities (The University of Nottingham and the Nottingham Trent - formerly the Polytechnic), and the Queens Medical Centre hospital as well as household name companies such as Boots, Raleigh Cycles and Imperial Tobacco. It also includes new, large-scale employers such as Capital One and Experian, and the site for the relocated Inland Revenue offices. Nottingham South takes in both the poorest parts of the inner city and some of its most affluent suburbs.

Alan has a local office in the middle of his constituency.

He holds two fixed advice surgeries each month, one in his constituency office and one in the Clifton Library. In addition to these he then holds at least two other advice surgeries each month, rotating around different estates and areas.

These range from health centres, local libraries, schools or community centres…though he has held one in a bingo hall. He also holds advice sessions in local supermarkets, and does 'roving surgeries', going out onto estates and around different areas, so that everyone has the opportunity to speak with him and raise the issues that concern them.

If you are one of Alan's constituents and would like to see him at one of his advice sessions, please telephone his constituency office on 0115 956 0460 to book an appointment.

What can your MP do to help you?

Many people think that their MP is there to solve all their problems for them - unfortunately this is not the case. MPs can help only with those matters for which Parliament or central government is responsible - for example with such areas as tax problems involving the Inland Revenue (but not the Council Tax, which is paid to the local authority); problems dealt with by the Department of Health to do with hospitals or the health service, issues relating to benefits, pensions and national insurance (but not social services, which comes under your local authority), problems dealt with by the Home Office, such as Immigration, or issues relating to the Department for Education and Employment (but not day to day issues involving schools, which are run by their governors and local education authority). Alan is not able to help in private disputes with other individuals or companies, nor, for example, to interfere with decisions made by courts.

Constituents often bring problems to their MP because they don't know who else could help them. Alan is very generous at giving help and advice, and will often refer issues on to the right person to help (for example your local councillor, or the Welfare Rights Service). Alan always tries to be as helpful as he can, but with around 75,000 constituents to look after and his Parliamentary duties to attend to, this does place limits on the amount of time that can be spent dealing with problems, so it's really important he uses this to deal with problems that do relate to him, rather than diverting queries that should have been taken elsewhere. Also, it is important that you check that Alan is your MP, as there is an unwritten rule (known as a convention) in parliament that MP's deal only with the problems of their own constituents and not with those of another MP's constituents.

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