Barry's surgeries are a chance to meet Barry or his assistant face to face to discuss your problem or concern. At the surgery Barry or his assistant will listen to your problem and then advise what action Barry can take to help.

Surgeries are reserved to Barry's constituents (e.g. people who reside within the parliamentary constituency of Brent North). 

There are two types of advice surgery:

Immigration & Asylum

These are held on the 2nd Friday of each month (except August) at Brent Town Hall (Forty Lane, Wembley, HA9 9HD) from 9.30 -12.00 o'clock. See full address below.

You do not need to make an appointment for immigration surgery as it is run on a "first come, first served" basis.

Please arrive early and bring with you photocopies of relevant documents as Barry cannot accept originals. If you have a home office reference number, please bring that too.

Non-immigration

For all matters apart from immigration, you will need to book an appointment at one of Barry's four monthly surgeries - twice per month. Please arrive on time and bring with you photocopies of any relevant documents as Barry cannot accept originals.

Non-Immigration Surgeries are held at the Brent Indian Association and Brent Town hall on the 2nd Monday in the month (except August) or at Sudbury Methodist Church and Kingsbury library on the 4th Saturday in the month (except August). Please see the chart below for the addresses and the directions.

Advice Sugeries Locations

Booking an appointment

If you want to attend a Non-Immigration surgery you need to book an appointment by calling Barry's office on 020 7219 4046. The surgeries are very popular and places book up quickly, so please try to book as early as possible to avoid disappointment.

Please bear in mind that the appointments are for twenty minutes so if your case is very complicated, please bring copies of relevant documents or a letter explaining the case for Barry to take away with him to read after the surgery.

If you want to attend an Immigration surgery there is no need to book an appointment as it is run on a "first come, first served" basis. Immigration surgeries are very popular and if you want to be sure to see Barry or his assistant we suggest that you arrive at Brent Town Hall earlier than 9:30.

Is there anything Barry CANNOT help with?

There are a small number of issues that Barry is unable to become involved in, these are:

Planning issues

Barry regrets to have to inform you that as your MP, he is unable to intervene in planning matters as the planning committee is a quasi-judicial body and as such operates on non-political and non-party lines. It is only permitted to reach its decisions in accordance with strict planning criteria. Hence it would be inappropriate for Barry as your political representative to make representations to the committee.

There are two exceptions to this. Firstly if the planning application is a major infrastructural development, such as a new housing development. Here there would be knock-on effects from the development which have wider political ramifications within the local community such as traffic generation, overcrowding of doctors' surgeries, inadequate number of spaces in local schools etc. Because of these wider implications Barry can and does make representations on any such major development. The other case where I make representations about planning matters is where there has clearly been a breach of procedure; for instance, if the planning committee has broken its own terms of reference. In such situations Barry would and does make representations to the Council asking them to ensure that the correct procedures are followed. This however is an intervention about the process not about the substance of the decision.

School places

In a situation where schools are oversubscribed by parents exercising their choice for a particular school, it is the school that ends up choosing from amongst the pupils who have applied not the parents who choose the school. The important thing is that the criteria the schools then employ must be fair. Each school's board of governors has the right to set its own admission criteria and neither the local education authority nor Barry can instruct a school to take any child.

Legal matters

As your Member of Parliament, Barry is not permitted or qualified to give specific legal advice and cannot become involved in matters which are currently being dealt with by the Courts or a Tribunal. You should contact a Law Centre, Citizens Advice Bureau, the Law Society or the Community Legal Advice helpline (0845 345 4345) if you require legal advice.

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