Margot James Portrait

Margot James

Conservative - Former Member for Stourbridge

First elected: 6th May 2010

Left House: 6th November 2019 (Standing Down)


Margot James is not a member of any APPGs
2 Former APPG memberships
Hospice and Palliative Care, Patient and Public Involvement in Health and Social Care
Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) (Digital Policy)
9th Jan 2018 - 18th Jul 2019
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy)
17th Jul 2016 - 9th Jan 2018
Assistant Whip (HM Treasury)
13th May 2015 - 17th Jul 2016
Committees on Arms Export Controls
12th Jul 2010 - 8th Nov 2012
Business, Innovation and Skills Committee
12th Jul 2010 - 5th Nov 2012


Division Voting information

Margot James has voted in 1803 divisions, and 24 times against the majority of their Party.

3 Sep 2019 - European Union (Withdrawal) - View Vote Context
Margot James voted Aye - against a party majority and in line with the House
One of 20 Conservative Aye votes vs 286 Conservative No votes
Tally: Ayes - 328 Noes - 301
18 Jul 2019 - Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill - View Vote Context
Margot James voted Aye - against a party majority and in line with the House
One of 17 Conservative Aye votes vs 262 Conservative No votes
Tally: Ayes - 315 Noes - 274
18 Jul 2019 - Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill - View Vote Context
Margot James voted No - against a party majority and in line with the House
One of 16 Conservative No votes vs 262 Conservative Aye votes
Tally: Ayes - 273 Noes - 315
1 Apr 2019 - EU: Withdrawal and Future Relationship (Votes) - View Vote Context
Margot James voted Aye - against a party majority and against the House
One of 36 Conservative Aye votes vs 236 Conservative No votes
Tally: Ayes - 273 Noes - 276
1 Apr 2019 - EU: Withdrawal and Future Relationship (Votes) - View Vote Context
Margot James voted Aye - against a party majority and against the House
One of 14 Conservative Aye votes vs 253 Conservative No votes
Tally: Ayes - 280 Noes - 292
27 Mar 2019 - EU: Withdrawal and Future Relationship Votes - View Vote Context
Margot James voted No - against a party majority and in line with the House
One of 94 Conservative No votes vs 157 Conservative Aye votes
Tally: Ayes - 160 Noes - 400
27 Mar 2019 - EU: Withdrawal and Future Relationship Votes - View Vote Context
Margot James voted Aye - against a party majority and against the House
One of 37 Conservative Aye votes vs 225 Conservative No votes
Tally: Ayes - 188 Noes - 283
27 Mar 2019 - EU: Withdrawal and Future Relationship Votes - View Vote Context
Margot James voted Aye - against a party majority and against the House
One of 34 Conservative Aye votes vs 234 Conservative No votes
Tally: Ayes - 264 Noes - 272
27 Mar 2019 - EU: Withdrawal and Future Relationship Votes - View Vote Context
Margot James voted No - against a party majority and in line with the House
One of 122 Conservative No votes vs 126 Conservative Aye votes
Tally: Ayes - 139 Noes - 422
14 Mar 2019 - UK’s Withdrawal from the European Union - View Vote Context
Margot James voted Aye - against a party majority and in line with the House
One of 112 Conservative Aye votes vs 188 Conservative No votes
Tally: Ayes - 412 Noes - 202
13 Mar 2019 - UK’s Withdrawal from the European Union - View Vote Context
Margot James voted No - against a party majority and in line with the House
One of 66 Conservative No votes vs 149 Conservative Aye votes
Tally: Ayes - 164 Noes - 374
24 Oct 2018 - Northern Ireland (Executive Formation and Exercise of Functions) Bill - View Vote Context
Margot James voted Aye - against a party majority and in line with the House
One of 45 Conservative Aye votes vs 102 Conservative No votes
Tally: Ayes - 207 Noes - 117
31 Jan 2018 - Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) - View Vote Context
Margot James voted Aye - against a party majority and in line with the House
One of 66 Conservative Aye votes vs 164 Conservative No votes
Tally: Ayes - 236 Noes - 220
31 Jan 2018 - Restoration and Renewal (Report of the Joint Committee) - View Vote Context
Margot James voted Aye - against a party majority and in line with the House
One of 68 Conservative Aye votes vs 166 Conservative No votes
Tally: Ayes - 234 Noes - 185
23 Feb 2015 - Serious Crime Bill [Lords] - View Vote Context
Margot James voted No - against a party majority and in line with the House
One of 78 Conservative No votes vs 151 Conservative Aye votes
Tally: Ayes - 201 Noes - 292
24 Nov 2014 - Recall of MPs Bill - View Vote Context
Margot James voted Aye - against a party majority and against the House
One of 71 Conservative Aye votes vs 85 Conservative No votes
Tally: Ayes - 119 Noes - 193
21 May 2013 - Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill - View Vote Context
Margot James voted Aye - against a party majority and in line with the House
One of 124 Conservative Aye votes vs 134 Conservative No votes
Tally: Ayes - 366 Noes - 161
20 May 2013 - Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill - View Vote Context
Margot James voted No - against a party majority and in line with the House
One of 99 Conservative No votes vs 121 Conservative Aye votes
Tally: Ayes - 150 Noes - 340
20 May 2013 - Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill - View Vote Context
Margot James voted No - against a party majority and in line with the House
One of 95 Conservative No votes vs 125 Conservative Aye votes
Tally: Ayes - 148 Noes - 339
20 May 2013 - Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill - View Vote Context
Margot James voted No - against a party majority and in line with the House
One of 92 Conservative No votes vs 126 Conservative Aye votes
Tally: Ayes - 163 Noes - 321
5 Feb 2013 - Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill - View Vote Context
Margot James voted Aye - against a party majority and in line with the House
One of 131 Conservative Aye votes vs 139 Conservative No votes
Tally: Ayes - 400 Noes - 175
11 Jul 2012 - Sittings of the House - View Vote Context
Margot James voted No - against a party majority and in line with the House
One of 87 Conservative No votes vs 142 Conservative Aye votes
Tally: Ayes - 241 Noes - 256
22 Jun 2011 - Smoking in Private Vehicles - View Vote Context
Margot James voted Aye - against a party majority and in line with the House
One of 13 Conservative Aye votes vs 53 Conservative No votes
Tally: Ayes - 78 Noes - 66
13 Oct 2010 - Public Houses and Private Members’ Clubs (Smoking) Bill - View Vote Context
Margot James voted No - against a party majority and in line with the House
One of 37 Conservative No votes vs 74 Conservative Aye votes
Tally: Ayes - 86 Noes - 141
View All Margot James Division Votes

All Debates

Speeches made during Parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. For ease of browsing we have grouped debates into individual, departmental and legislative categories.

Sparring Partners
Liam Byrne (Labour)
(102 debate interactions)
John Bercow (Speaker)
(38 debate interactions)
Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton (Conservative)
Foreign Secretary
(33 debate interactions)
View All Sparring Partners
Department Debates
Home Office
(97 debate contributions)
Department of Health and Social Care
(88 debate contributions)
View All Department Debates
View all Margot James's debates

Stourbridge Petitions

e-Petitions are administered by Parliament and allow members of the public to express support for a particular issue.

If an e-petition reaches 10,000 signatures the Government will issue a written response.

If an e-petition reaches 100,000 signatures the petition becomes eligible for a Parliamentary debate (usually Monday 4.30pm in Westminster Hall).

Petition Debates Contributed

Removing them will only penalize the poorest old age pensioners, many who rely on their television for company and their main source of entertainment.

The impartiality of the BBC is in question and needs addressing so as to protect its charter

The quality of BBC programmes do not reflect the price of the TV license. It is far too expensive for the majority of people and should be abolished.


Latest EDMs signed by Margot James

16th July 2018
Margot James signed this EDM on Tuesday 16th October 2018

ATTEMPTED BOMBING OF IRANIAN OPPOSITION IN PARIS

Tabled by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
That this House strongly condemns the attempted bombing at the gathering of the Iranian opposition in Paris, Free Iran - The Altemative; notes Belgian prosecutors have announced that two Belgian nationals of Iranian origin were charged with attempted terrorist murder and the preparation of a terrorist offence and both are …
75 signatures
(Most recent: 29 Nov 2018)
Signatures by party:
Labour: 34
Conservative: 19
Scottish National Party: 6
Liberal Democrat: 5
Democratic Unionist Party: 5
Independent: 4
Crossbench: 1
Plaid Cymru: 1
The Independent Group for Change: 1
View All Margot James's signed Early Day Motions

Commons initiatives

These initiatives were driven by Margot James, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.

MPs who are act as Ministers or Shadow Ministers are generally restricted from performing Commons initiatives other than Urgent Questions.


Margot James has not been granted any Urgent Questions

1 Adjournment Debate led by Margot James

Monday 5th December 2011

1 Bill introduced by Margot James


A Bill to make provision about the drugs for which persons detained in prisons and similar institutions may be tested.

Commons - 20%

Last Event - 1st Reading: House Of Commons
Wednesday 19th June 2013

Margot James has not co-sponsored any Bills in the current parliamentary sitting


Latest 13 Written Questions

(View all written questions)
Written Questions can be tabled by MPs and Lords to request specific information information on the work, policy and activities of a Government Department
1 Other Department Questions
11th Dec 2014
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many new businesses have opened in Stourbridge constituency in each of the last five years.

The estimated number of business start-ups in the Stourbridge constituency between 2009 and 2013, is shown in the table below.

Year

Estimated number of business start-ups in Stourbridge

2009

610

2010

640

2011

590

2012

550

2013

550

Source: BankSearch: number of new business bank accounts opened. All figures rounded to the nearest 10.

26th Sep 2014
To ask the Attorney General, how many companies have been prosecuted for not paying minimum wage in each of the last nine years.

Records are available from 2006-07. With the agreement of the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, HMRC started considering prosecution for minimum wage offences from May 2006.

The following table shows the number of employers who have been prosecuted with offences connected with the National Minimum Wage (NMW) since then, and of those prosecutions, the number who have been prosecuted under Section 31(1) “Employer refuses or wilfully neglects to pay NMW” alongside other offences.

Prosecutions started

for any NMW offences

Charges of failure/

refusal to pay NMW

2006-07

1

0

2007-08

1

0

2008-09

5

2

2009-10

1

1

2010-11

0

1

2011-12

1

0

2012-13

0

0

2013-14

0

0

The majority of employers identified as paying below the NMW pay arrears on receipt of a formal Notice of Underpayment. Where they do not do so, HMRC pursues recovery through the civil courts. For deliberate non-compliance or obstructive behavior HMRC operates a policy of selective and exemplary criminal investigation action to enhance their enforcement strategy. HMRC‘s approach to tackling underpayment of NMW through the civil courts is the best way to ensure that money is paid back to the person underpaid and provides the most effective resolution for tax-payers. Criminal investigations may not result in arrears being paid to workers and are therefore reserved for the most serious cases.

13th Jan 2015
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of pupils in each primary school in Stourbridge constituency met the required standard of phonic decoding in the 2013-14 academic year.

School level performance in the phonics screening check is not published in the performance tables. Schools are not held to account for their performance in this diagnostic check, although they do have to inform parents of their child’s result in the way they think most suitable. The results are available on www.raiseonline.org for schools to use and for local authorities and Ofsted as part of their inspections process.

The overall proportion of pupils attending schools in Stourbridge constituency who met the required standard of phonics decoding by the end of year 1 in the 2013/14 academic year was 77%. Nationally 74% of year 1 pupils met the required standard of phonic decoding in the 2013/14 academic year.

10th Dec 2014
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many state-funded primary schools whose phonics check results were below the national average have been judged (a) outstanding and (b) good in their most recent Ofsted inspection.

Nationally 74 per cent of year one pupils met the required standard of phonic decoding in the 2013/14 academic year.

Out of 15,658 state-funded primary schools[1] in England, 6,783 had year one phonics checks results that were below the national average. Of these, 780 schools were judged as outstanding and 4,341 were judged as good schools according to their most recent Ofsted inspection [2],[3],[4] on overall effectiveness.

[1] Defined as schools with pupils with highest statutory age below 12.

[2] This covers inspection outcomes of September 2005 to August 2014 published at http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/latest-official-statistics-maintained-schools-and-academies-inspections-and-outcomes. The school type of an institution is as of 31 August 2014, which means that schools may have received their rating under a different school type.

[3] The inspections have taken place before the 2013/14 phonics results were available to Ofsted (late October 2014). As the phonics check was only introduced in 2011/12, the inspections may have taken place before any phonics results were available to Ofsted.

[4] There have been changes in the framework on how schools are inspected and ranked. Prior to September 2012, schools graded 3 were judged as ‘satisfactory’. Since 1 September 2012 they are judged as ‘requires improvement’. From 1 January 2012 inspections of maintained schools have taken place under a new framework, in accordance with sections 5 and 8 of the Education Act 2005. This framework was revised on 1 September 2012 and under the revised framework, schools can be judged as outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate.

10th Nov 2014
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 24 October 2014 to Queston 211886, how many of the co-educational state boarding schools in England are single sex up to sixth form; and how many of those schools accept only (a) boys and (b) girls until sixth form.

This information is not held by the Department for Education. Gender of school details are only collected by the Department at the point of first entry (i.e. age 11 for 11-18 schools). The information requested is held by local authorities or academies in each local authority area.

24th Oct 2014
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many state boarding schools in England are (a) co-educational, (b) all boys and (c) all girls.

There are 146 co-educational state boarding schools in England. There are 39 all-boys schools, and two all-girls schools, giving a total of 187 state boarding schools currently open.

This data has been taken from the October 2014 ‘Schools in England’[1] publication.

[1] www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-in-england

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of his Department's £140 million fund to repair weather-damaged roads he plans to allocate to Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council.

The Department announced on 20 March 2014 that we had allocated a total of £318,757 to Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council to help repair their roads damaged by the recent severe wet weather. A breakdown of the allocations we have made to all councils can be found at the following weblink:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/294497/extra-funding-to-repair-roads.csv/preview

11th Mar 2015
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of people who claimed jobseeker's allowance (JSA) at some point during the year were subject to a JSA sanction in that year in (a) Stourbridge Jobcentre and (b) Stourbridge constituency in each of the last five years.

The information requested is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Esther McVey
Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
2nd Jul 2014
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which facilities patients of Winterborne View were transferred on that hospital's closure; and in which facilities those patients are now.

When Winterbourne View Hospital was closed, the remaining patients were transferred to a variety of learning disability care provision. The range of provision included medium and low secure hospitals; NHS Assessment and Treatment facilities; independent hospitals that offer rehabilitation; and specialist residential homes that care for people with challenging behaviour.

As at 1 July 2014, of the 48 individuals who, at some point, were patients at Winterbourne View Hospital, 10 people are still in hospital; 20 people are living in a residential home; five people are living in supported living accommodation and 12 people have their own tenancy. One person passed away in 2013, who had moved into a residential home.

26th Sep 2014
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much the tax gap was in each of the last nine years; and what estimate he has made of the tax gap that was due to tax evasion in each of the last nine years.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) publish estimates of the tax gap in Measuring Tax Gaps each year. The 2013 edition presents a time series of tax gaps from 2005-06 to 2011-12, which can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/249537/131010_Measuring_Tax_Gaps_ACCESS_2013.pdf

HMRC has also produced an illustrative breakdown of the tax gap by behaviour, including evasion, for the years 2007-08, 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12. These are not comparable year on year because the data available doesn’t enable estimates to be updated for earlier years. Table 1 below shows the estimates of evasion published in previous HMRC publications for these years.

Table 1: Estimates of evasion previously published

Publication

Year of estimate

Amount (£bn)

Percentage of tax gap in year of estimate

Measuring Tax Gaps 2013

2011-12

5.1

15%

Measuring Tax Gaps 2012

2010-11

4

14%

Measuring Tax Gaps 2011

2009-10

4

12%

Protecting Tax Revenues 2009

2007-08

7

17.5%

Previous editions of ‘Measuring Tax Gaps’ can be accessed at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/measuring-tax-gaps

The HMRC publication ‘Protecting Tax Revenues 2009’, can be accessed at the following link: (http://irscot.inrev.gov.uk/budget10/pbr/00notices/docs/5450_other.pdf)

The 2014 edition of Measuring Tax Gaps, covering estimates for 2012-13, will be published on 16 October.

26th Sep 2014
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much HM Revenue and Customs spent on dealing with tax evasion in each of the last nine years.

Since 2010, the Government has been determined to support HMRC in tackling tax evasion, and has invested nearly £1 billion in HMRC’s compliance activities.

It is not possible to say how much HMRC have spent on tackling tax evasion in each of the last nine years as HMRC works on a risk basis tackling behaviours. Work on tax evasion is not confined to one directorate within HMRC. Therefore the information is not held in the format requested and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

1st Sep 2014
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the (a) nationality and (b) gender was of each suspected victim of trafficking referred to the Trafficking Victim Support Scheme operated by the Salvation Army in July 2014; in which (a) region and (b) county, each of the suspected victims was found; which agency referred each person to the scheme; in which town the shelter was in which they were placed for the relevant period; and what contact is maintained with each victim after he or she leaves the shelter to ensure he or she is not re-trafficked.

The data requested for July 2014 can be found on The Salvation Army’s website, at: http://www.salvationarmy.org.uk/uki/Anti_Human_Trafficking_Latest_Report

Monthly reports are published on the website providing information on victims that have been supported. In the interests of the victim’s safety, only the
region in which the victim was encountered will be provided.

Upon leaving Government-funded care, a victim is provided with tailored support either to safely return home or integrate in the UK, if they are eligible to do so. Once a victim leaves the service, no formal mechanisms exist to maintain contact with them. However, ongoing support of victims is being considered as part of the review of the National Referral Mechanism.

26th Sep 2014
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many companies have been successfully taken to tribunal by employees for not complying with minimum wage legislation in each of the last nine years.

HM Courts & Tribunal Service does not collate the information requested. This information could only be provided at a disproportionate cost by manually checking individual tribunal files.