On 11 January 2012, following his campaign against the big six energy companies' doorstep selling, Barry took part in the Opposition Day Debate on Energy Prices.

Since 2004, gas and electricity bills have increased more than six times faster than household incomes, meaning that a quarter of all households in England and Wales are now in fuel poverty. Increasing energy bills and stagnating incomes also mean that an additional 25% of people now face energy debts and more than 850,000 electricity consumers and more than 700,000 gas customers are now in debt to their energy supplier.

I would dearly love to give the hon. Member for Ipswich (Ben Gummer) a lesson in the history he so eloquently went into earlier, but I shall defer that to another occasion. I would point out, however, that although he accused the previous Government of not having tackled structural reform in the energy market, they did so on two occasions with the new electricity trading arrangements, or NETA, and the British electricity trading and transmission arrangements, or BETTA. We will save the rest of that debate for another day.

On 27 January 2012, Holocaust Memorial Day, Barry Gardiner joined other MPs in signing the Holocaust Educational Trust's Book of Commitment in the Houses of Parliament.

The Holocaust Educational Trust describe the book as "an opportunity to publicly commit both to remembering the Holocaust and to working towards a future in which prejudice and hatred are never again allowed to gain a foothold in society."

For more information on the Holocaust Educational Trust, or to sign the Book of Commitment online, please click here.

On Thursday 12 January 2012 Barry hosted a roundtable discussion on the liberalisation of the legal services industry in India. The event was opened by David Gardnes, Director of Public Policy at KPMG. Barry, in his capacity of Chair of the APPG UK - India Trade and Investment, led the discussion in front of an audience of business leaders. Barry argued the case of a free-trade agreement between the EU and India to disclose the full potential of the services industry to the benefit of both economies.

Barry Gardiner MP attended the latest meeting of the Sudbury Town Residents Association (www.stra.org.uk), Mr. George Sabaratnam (Chairman) and Mrs. Renu Kaul invited Barry on behalf of the residents to discuss with him the Association’s ‘Neighbourhood Plan’.

The ongoing problem of paan spitting was raised at the meeting as a great concern for local residents. It creates problems of hygiene and decorum. This is why Brent Council introduced fines for people caught spitting paan on the street.

Barry Gardiner is campaigning against paan spitting. Following the residents meeting he patrolled the area with police to check the progress on this issue. Interviewed by the Harrow Observer, Barry said: "It is a problem there and the people of Sudbury are very concerned about the way in which the spit from paan is all over the pavements and the streets. I think some people who spit paan do not realise they are being anti-social, some people think it's acceptable to spit in the street."