MEALE, Alan

Member for Mansfield since 1987. Committees: Commissioner, War Graves Commission since 2002; Other committees include: Chair, Stags Community Trust since 2002; Official Rapporteur, Western European Union ‘Petersburg Tasks’ since 2001; Official Rapporteur, Council of Europe ‘Kyoto Protocol’ since 2001; Vice- President, The Executive Council of the Arboricultural Society since 1999; Member, Parliamentary Court of Referees since 1997; Chair, Parliament’s Crossrail Select Committee 2005-07; First President, COE’s Environment, Agriculture, Local and Regional Development Committee and its Rapporteur on Climate Change and Nuclear Waste; WEU Rapporteur, ‘Weapons in Space I and II’; ex-Chair of Sustainable Development, Council of Europe 2002-05; Founder, Ex-Chair and now Executive Member, Parliamentary Beer Industries Committee; Member, Parliamentary Racing and Bloodstocks Group; ex-Secretary, All-Party Parliamentary Greyhound Group; Vice- Chair, Parliamentary Ukraine Committee; Member, War Pensions Board 1989-97; ex-Secretary, All-Party Animal Welfare Group; Parliamentary Representative, SSAFA (Armed Forces Social Welfare Organisation) 1989-95. Political career: Member, Council of Europe and Western European Union Interim Security and Defence Assembly since 2000; Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Environment 1998-99; Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Rt Hon John Prescott, Deputy Prime Minister 1997-98; Parliamentary and Political Advisor to the Rt Hon Michael Meacher MP 1985-97; Parliamentary Private Secretary to John Prescott MP, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party 1994-97; Frontbench Labour Whip 1992-94; Assistant to Ray Bickton, General Secretary of ASLEF 1980-83. Special political interests: Home affairs, transport, social security, human rights, environment, drugs misuse, sport, music, unemployment, poverty, the media, health. Profession/Trade: Author, editor, political advisor, journalist. Education: St Joseph’s RC School, Bishop Auckland; University of Durham; Ruskin College, Oxford; Sheffield Hallam University. Author/editor of: various pamphlets and books. Affiliations: Child Poverty Action Group; MSF; Coop Party. Hobbies: Walking, reading, writing, arts, Cyprus, sports, Mansfield Town FC.
b. 31 July 1949, Bishop Auckland, County Durham. Married with two children.