Constituents, both individuals, groups and organisations may want to contact their MP from time to time for information or support. The basic convention is that MPs will only deal with an issue within their constituency (this does not include non-constituency issues they might have a spoecial interest in). So if your MP is not of the political party you prefer, you can't go and speak to an MP in another constituency just because they might be from your preferred party. MPs exist to support all constituents, irrespective of how they vote, though MPs are aware that constituency service can help them develop a personal vote which might insure them against adverse national party swings in electoral support.
Therefore, if someone emails their MP regarding a constituency issue, the MPs office may ask for a local address/postcode to check that that they should deal with the issue.
I was very surprised to see that this convention may now be extending to non-parliamentarians. I recently had recourse to email a Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC), and received an automail from them which stated that they could only deal with matters relating to their named constituency, and requesting confimation that the emailer did indeed live in that constituency.
I have never seen this before, but the candidate was clearly applying the constituency convention, I suspect so that they don't waste time to non-constituency matters, or from non-constituents. Is this now the norm?
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