The first full week back in Parliament has been a busy one. 

Monday saw the publication of the Coalition government's mid-term review (which you can read here: Mid Term Review). I'd be the first to admit that we haven't been able to do everything we hoped, but I'm immensely proud to be part of a Government that amongst many other achievements, has reduced the deficit by a quarter, is tackling benefit dependency and has created a million new private sector jobs. I'd encourage you to read the document and the accompanying Programme for Government update which has been called an audit by many elements of the press. On Monday I also spoke about our policy of withdrawing Child Benefit from high earners on Radio 4's Woman's hour. You can listen to it until Monday here.

Tuesday saw an important vote in the Commons on the Welfare Uprating Bill which capped the increase in working age non disability benefits at 1% for the next 2 years. This wasn't an easy decision to take, but when we're asking the public sector to accept only a 1% pay increase it's only fair that we also ask those individuals in receipt of benefits to do the same. Throughout the recession and beyond, annual increases in benefits have greatly exceeded those of salaries so this 1% increase helps to ensure we are all in this together. 

It was deeply disappointing to see Labour politicians, who support a 1% increase in public sector pay, fail to vote in support of this policy, particularly as it is also so well supported by the nation. 

Wednesday saw a boisterous Prime Ministers Questions as always. I also published an article on the Spectator website about the implementation of the Leveson report. (You can read it here: The Press needs a regulator that can outlive the memory of the last scandal . I was one of the 42 Conservative MPs who signed a letter calling for a statue backed regulator and whilst I wouldn't want to see anything that could lead to state control or licensing (having grown up in Baghdad under Saddam I have some personal experience of such a system), I do think it's vital that we restore credibility to our press regulation. What's important is that we come to a cross party agreement on this and create a system that works now and will last.

Wednesday also saw the launch of the 2020Conservatives Agenda for Transformation, to which I contributed an essay on Civil Service Reform. Having come from business this is an area that has interested me for some time. It's a very strange situation we have at the moment where a Minister is responsible for the implementation of policy (and may lose their job for its failure), yet has no say in who within a department carried out the implementation or how they do it. Instead Permanent Secretaries (who Ministers have no say in the appointment of) have that power, yet have no accountability. 

The full Agenda for Transformation document includes a large number of policy ideas from many MPs and we hope will give some food for thought for the next General Election Manifesto.

On Thursday Europe was back on the agenda and I appeared on the Daily Politics show with our former Ambassador to the USA, Sir Christopher Meyer and their guest of the day Venture Capitalist Jon Moulton.

As many regular readers of my blog will know I'm a firm supporter of the Conservative party's position on Europe. There is fundamental change happening at the heart of the EU right now and this will give us the opportunity to renegotiate our position and relatinship with it. What's vital though is that we remain part of the single market, to which nearly 50% of all UK exports go.

You can watch the episode again on BBC Iplayer.

Today (Friday) has been spent in the constituency and began with a visit to a fantastic local company Oxalis Group, who design, develop and manufacture explosion protected equipment for the oil and gas sector. In just 2 years they've managed to achieve an impressive turnover and taken on 24 staff in Stratford and a further 10 elsewhere in the world. 

One hundred percent of their business is export so it was interesting to hear how they've experienced the Export Finance Guarantee Department (sadly not well) and other export supports. I'll be following up with the BIS department on their behalf on a number of items and hope I can help them continue to grow their business.

From there it was off to Alcester where children of the town were burying a time capsule at the soon to be opened Primary Care Health Centre. The last time I was there the building was three levels of open concrete slabs so it was great to get a sneak peek tour and see the almost completed building. It's a great new resource for the people of Alcester bringing doctors, a pharmacy and other primary services such as district nurses and physio all under one roof.

Then it was back to Stratford for more meetings with constituents. Then sticking with the NHS theme a visit to Arden Medical Centre to discuss their, and Bridge House Medical's challenges over space and their quest to get funding from the PCT and it's replacement the National Commissioning Board for new larger premises. I'll be seeing what I can do to help them solve their issues and navigate the bureaucracy of the Department and the new commissioning structures.

Finally it was time for a long post Christmas surgery on a range of issues including housing service charges, gay marriage, research, small business, and concerns over housing developments.