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Gavin BarwellMP
Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Education
Incumbent
Assumed office 12 September 2012
Preceded by	David Evennett
Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State for Decentralisation and Planning Policy
In office 14 December 2011 – 12 September 2012
Preceded by	New position
Member of Parliament for Croydon Central
Incumbent
Assumed office 6 May 2010
Preceded by	Andrew Pelling
Majority	2,969 (39.5%)
Personal details
Born	(1972-01-23) 23 January 1972 (age 52) Cuckfield, West Sussex, England
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Karen Barwell
Children	Three sons
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge
Website	www.gavinbarwell.com

Gavin Laurence Barwell (born 23 January 1972) is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Croydon Central since the 2010 general election.

Connection to Croydon

Although born in Cuckfield, West Sussex, at a very young age Barwell moved and subsequently went to school in Croydon, London. He has lived in Croydon virtually his whole life, growing up in Shirley before moving to Monks Hill and finally setting up his family home in South Croydon. Barwell is married to Karen, a speech and language therapist, who used to work at Applegarth School in New Addington before stopping work to bring up their three young boys Jack, Sam and Jamie.

Education

Barwell was educated at the Trinity School of John Whitgift, Croydon and Trinity College, Cambridge where he studied Natural Sciences. In 1993 he was President of the Cambridge Union Society.

Political career

After graduating, Barwell joined the Conservative Research Department. Over the next thirteen years, he held a number of positions at Conservative Campaign Headquarters culminating in his appointment in October 2003 as the Party’s Director of Operations, responsible for a multi-million pound budget and over a hundred staff, sitting on the Board of the Party and working closely with Party Leaders Michael Howard and David Cameron.

In May 1998, Barwell was elected to Croydon Council representing the Woodcote and Coulsdon West ward. In May 2006, when the Conservatives took control of the Council, he was appointed Chief Whip of the Conservative Group and he subsequently served as the Cabinet member for resources and customer services and the Cabinet member for community safety and cohesion before standing down from the Council in May 2010.

In May 2006, he stood down as Director of Operations at Conservative Campaign Headquarters and founded his own consultancy business.

During that period Barwell was selected to join David Cameron's A-List of Conservative parliamentary candidates.

He was chosen as the parliamentary candidate for the Conservative Party in Croydon Central, where at the 2010 general election he defeated the incumbent Member, Andrew Pelling and the Labour contender, Gerry Ryan.

In 2011, Barwell was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Rt Hon Greg Clark MP, Minister for Cities and Decentralisation.

In September 2012, Barwell was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Rt Hon Michael Gove MP, Secretary of State for Education.

In addition to urban policy, his main interests are education, crime and immigration and asylum.

Mental Health Discrimination Bill

On Thursday 14 June 2012, Barwell announced that, having come fourth in the Private Members Bill ballot, he will be piloting the Mental Health (Discrimination) Bill through Parliament.

Barwell commented: “At the moment there are certain aspects of the law that encourage discrimination against people with mental health problems. It can’t be right that millions of people with common mental health conditions are prevented from serving on a jury or being the director of a company and that MPs who require a prolonged stay in hospital due to a mental health condition automatically lose their jobs even if they make a full recovery. This outdated way of thinking is entirely wrong and needs to be addressed.”

Specifically the Bill will:

• Remove the blanket ban that forbids anyone receiving treatment for any mental health condition eg women taking anti-depressants to tackle post-natal depression from undertaking jury service, replacing it with a much more specific bar on those who would be unable to fulfill the role.
• Amend legislation which states that a person can be removed as a director of a public or private company “by reason of their mental health” (there is a separate provision that allows people to remove if they have a health condition - physical or mental - that prevents them from doing their job).
• Remove legislation under which an MP automatically loses their seat if they are sectioned under the Mental Health Act for more than six months.

“The idea that people with mental health conditions can never recover and cannot be trusted to participate in social, political or economic life is from a bygone era.

“The main purpose of my Bill is to send a very clear message that having a mental health condition is nothing to be ashamed of or keep secret - it’s no different from having any other kind of health condition.

“This is the last form of legalised discrimination. Barriers to equality such as this need to be eradicated once and for all, which is why I’m proud to play my part by using my Private Members’ Bill to try to steer this onto the statute book.”

The Bill had its Second Reading on Friday 14 September 2012 and was passed without incident, supported by all political parties. The Bill will now proceed to Committee Stage to be discussed further. The Selection Committee will convene on 17 October where the names for the Committee to hear this Bill will be put forward.

Lillian's Law

Lillian’s Law is named after Lillian Groves, a 14 year-old constituent of Barwell's who was killed outside her home in New Addington by a driver under the influence of drugs. He was sentenced to just eight months in jail and served just four months. Her family wanted something positive to come from this tragedy and launched a campaign - ably assisted by The Croydon Advertiser - for a package of changes to ensure that in future drug driving is taken as seriously as the law currently takes drink driving.

The campaign had three main elements:

• To change the law relating to drug driving so that it is analogous to the drink driving law. If you drive with more than a certain level of alcohol in your blood you are held to be impaired and are committing a crime but if you drive with drugs in your system there are no limits over which you are held to be impaired - the prosecution have to prove that your driving was impaired by drugs, which isn’t easy to do so very few people get prosecuted. Despite the fact that studies have shown that drugs are a factor in 1 in 5 fatal accidents, just 1,644 people were convicted of drug-driving in England and Wales in 2008 compared with 71,449 convicted of drink-driving;

• To get the Government to approve technology already in use in other countries to allow police officers to test the level of drugs in someone’s system both at a police station and at the roadside; and

• When these other two elements are in place to have a random stop and test campaign so that people get the message that it is not acceptable to take drugs and drive and that if they do so they are liable to get caught and properly punished.

Barwell successfully lobbied the Prime Minister, David Cameron, who met with the Groves family and agreed to take the law forward. It was included in the 2012 Queen's Speech.

In July 2012, following the inclusion of legislation to change the law relating to drug driving in the Queen's Speech, the Home Office announced that machines capable of detecting whether a motorist has taken drugs will be in police stations by the end of 2013, with the aim to have roadside devices in use by the end of 2014.

References

1. "No. 59418". The London Gazette. 13 May 2010.
2. "Gavin Barwell MP uses Bill to tackle mental health discrimination". Retrieved 19 July 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
3. "Lillian's Law in Queen's Speech".

External links

• Gavin Barwell MP official constituency website
• Gavin Barwell MP Conservative Party profile
• Croydon Conservatives
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou

News articles

• Gavin Barwell MP investigated for breach of Data Protection Act law
• Croydon MP leads commission on improving boys' literacy
• Croydon Tory MP escapes £10,000 fines after breaking the law for two years
• After attacking graverobber as "scumbag" Gavin Barwell MP is The Sun's "hero of the week"
• Schools job raises questions about Barwell's link to Whitgift Foundation
• Gavin Barwell MP To Launch Bill To Scrap 'Archaic' Discriminatory Mental Health Laws

Template:Persondata

• 1972 births
• Living people
• Conservative Party (UK) MPs
• Members of the United Kingdom Parliament for English constituencies
• UK MPs 2010–
• Councillors in Croydon
• Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
• People educated at Trinity School of John Whitgift
• Presidents of the Cambridge Union Society