Mark Lazarowicz

Lazarowicz graduated from University of St Andrews where he had been Chairman of the St Andrews University Labour Club with an MA in Medieval History and Moral Philosophy in 1976, and the University of Edinburgh with an LLB in Law in 1992. He served as a Labour councillor on the City of Edinburgh District Council from 1980 to 1996, and was Leader of the Council from 1986 to 1993.[3] He began practising law as an advocate at the Scottish bar in 1996.[4] From 1999 to 2001, he was a member of the unitary City of Edinburgh Council, serving as Executive Member for Transport.[5]

Lazarowicz stood for the House of Commons, unsuccessfully, for Edinburgh Pentlands at the 1987 general election and again in 1992, but was defeated by Malcolm Rifkind on both occasions. He was elected as Member of Parliament for Edinburgh North and Leith in June 2001 and was re-elected in May 2005 and May 2010,[6] for the now expanded Edinburgh North and Leith constituency.

Lazarowicz was a member of the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee.[7] He previously served on the Environmental, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, the Scottish Affairs Committee and the Modernisation Committee.[7] Between October 2010 and 2011 he was Labour's shadow Minister for International Development. Lazarowicz has succeeded in having two Private Member's Bills passed. In 2002 he piloted the Employee Share Schemes Bill through Parliament,[7][8] and in 2006 the Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Bill.[9][10] He won the PRASEG Parliamentarian of the Year Award in 2006 for his work in promoting renewable energy.

In 2008, Lazarowicz lodged a further Private Member's Bill to restrict ship-to-ship oil transfers, with the aim of preventing spillages in the Firth of Forth.[11] In response, the government introduced regulations to restrict such transfers in April 2010 [12] which were then delayed, but eventually were brought into force.[13][14]

In October 2008, Lazarowicz was made the Prime Minister's Special Representative on Global Carbon Markets and his report on the issue, Global Carbon Trading: a framework for reducing emissions was published in July 2009.[15]

During the 2009 MP expenses scandal, Lazarowicz announced he would repay half of the more than £5000 expenses he had claimed for legal fees regarding the extension of the lease on his London flat.[16] Later he reversed his view, stating that his expenses were entirely within the existing parliamentary rules and that a lot of people and fellow MPs had questioned his decision to pay back the money. In his audit of MPs' accommodation expenses claims, Thomas Legg reported that Lazarowicz had no issues with his claims. He was therefore not required by Legg to make any repayments of his expenses.[17]

He rebelled against the Labour government on the Iraq war vote in 2003, and on a number of other issues including the Digital Economy Bill and the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Bill.[18] He also opposed the Conservative government's Immigration Bill and retrospective legislation on workfare.[18]

Lazarowicz was defeated at the 2015 general election by the Scottish National Party's Deidre Brock.[19]

Following his defeat in the 2015, Lazarowicz returned to legal practice.[4] His legal specialisms include public law, judicial review and human rights, immigration and asylum, personal injury, and planning and environmental law. He is the joint author of "The Scottish Parliament: An Introduction", published in 1999 with new editions in 2000, 2003 and 2010. This was published as a revised work in a new edition in 2018, with the title "The Scottish Parliament: Law and Practice"[20]

Lazarowicz is married with four children.[21] He has been a supporter of many environmental causes, and in 2015 he was elected as an Honorary Fellow of Scottish Environment Link.[22]

• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
• BBC Politics