Victoria Atkins, MP for Louth & Horncastle, has been invited to join the Home Office team of Ministers as a Parliamentary Private Secretary. This is in recognition of her service on the Home Affairs Select Committee and the Committee on the Investigative Powers Bill. She will work directly to Brandon Lewis MP, Minister of State for Policing and Fire Brigade issues, as well as assisting other Ministers in the Department.
“I am very pleased to take up this unpaid position” said Victoria “as it fits in with my activities in the House of Commons to date. But it is also especially helpful to my Constituents in Louth & Horncastle as law, order and security issues are of vital importance to them.”
Victoria Atkins is planning to arrange regular contact with senior police officers in Lincolnshire, as well as Mark Jones, the recently-elected Police & Crime Commissioner. “And the Fire Brigade is just as important.” she said “My Constituents value the Fire & Rescue Service just as highly and it is vital that they too have a line of contact.”
A Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) is often the first rung on the Ministerial ladder but the responsibilities are to be the “eyes and ears” of Ministers, both in Parliament and in their areas of expertise in the wider world.