Mark Lazarowicz

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Mark Lazarowicz is a British Labour Co-operative politician and lawyer who was the Member of Parliament for Edinburgh North and Leith from 2001 to 2015. Born Marek Jerzy Lazarowicz in 1953 in Romford, England, he studied at the University of St Andrews (MA in Medieval History and Moral Philosophy, 1976) and the University of Edinburgh (LLB, 1992). He began his career in local politics, serving as a Labour councillor in Edinburgh from 1980 to 1996 and as Leader of the City of Edinburgh District Council from 1986 to 1993, before becoming a practicing advocate in 1996.

Lazarowicz ran unsuccessfully for Edinburgh Pentlands in 1987 and 1992, then won the Edinburgh North and Leith seat in 2001 and held it through the 2005 and 2010 elections. In Parliament, he served on several committees, including the Environmental Audit Committee, and was Labour’s Shadow Minister for International Development from 2010 to 2011. He helped pass two Private Member’s Bills: the Employee Share Schemes Bill (2002) and the Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Bill (2006). He also promoted environmental protections, notably by proposing limits on ship-to-ship oil transfers, which led to related regulations in 2010. In 2008 he became the Prime Minister’s Special Representative on Global Carbon Markets, publishing a report on the subject in 2009. He rebelled against the Labour government on the Iraq War in 2003 and opposed the Conservative government’s Immigration Bill and workfare measures.

Lazarowicz lost his seat in the 2015 general election to SNP candidate Deidre Brock and returned to legal practice, focusing on public law, human rights, immigration and environmental law. He co-authored The Scottish Parliament: An Introduction, with later editions in 2000, 2003 and 2010, and a revised edition in 2018 titled The Scottish Parliament: Law and Practice. He is married with four children and has supported numerous environmental causes, being named an Honorary Fellow of Scottish Environment Link in 2015.