Writing to MPs: the essential checklist

Political offices process a constant flow of correspondence. Most letters are first read, classified and routed by staff: caseworkers and researchers in an MP’s office, or the private office and the department’s correspondence team for a minister. By the time an MP sees a letter, the office may already have decided what it means, who owns it and how it should be answered.

That first interpretation matters. A letter with a clear request can move quickly to the person able to act on it. A letter that buries its purpose, combines several requests or appears generic is harder to route and easier to defer.

Having worked in political offices, I handled thousands of pieces of correspondence, and I was consistently surprised by letters from experienced business leaders that made no clear request, or got names, titles and other basic details wrong.

This guide distils the most durable lessons from that experience into six checks to complete before you send a letter or meeting request to a minister, MP or peer.

Who this guide is for

It’s for organisations writing to MPs and peers at Westminster, and to MSPs, Members of the Senedd and MLAs, whether they are backbenchers, ministers or shadow ministers. For simplicity, it says “MP” throughout.

It is designed for business-to-MP correspondence. It is not a guide to constituency casework or grassroots community campaigns, which require different approaches.

The case study used throughout

Every good and bad example in this guide is drawn verbatim from the same two letters reproduced in full at the end. Both concern a fictional proposal to harmonise bank holidays across the four nations of the UK. The addressee and public parliamentary details are real; the organisations, survey and figures are fictional and exist only to demonstrate effective and ineffective correspondence.

The pre-send checklist

• 1. Is the covering letter no more than one page?
• 2. Does the letter make one clear request?
• 3. Does the first paragraph state the conclusion?
• 4. Is the case tailored to this MP?
• 5. Is there one clear primary recipient?
• 6. Have you verified every name, title, honorific and address?

1. Is the covering letter no more than one page?

Why? A political letter is not a submission. Its purpose is to make the request, establish why it matters and give the office enough information to decide what happens next.

As a rule, keep the covering letter to one page. If the central request cannot be understood within that space, it is probably not yet clear enough. Complex evidence, technical analysis and formal submissions can sit in attachments, but staff should not need to open them to understand what you want.

Advice

• Treat one page as a constraint on thinking, not an invitation to shrink the font.
• Use short paragraphs and generous white space.
• Include only the strongest evidence needed to justify the request.
• Put supporting detail in a clearly labelled attachment, such as a briefing note.
• Make sure the covering letter still stands alone.

The request and strongest evidence appear in two short paragraphs. The complete letter fits comfortably on one page.

The letter spends its limited attention on organisational history before it reaches the issue. The complete letter runs for more than one page and makes the MP work to discover its purpose.

2. Does the letter make one clear request?

Why? Every request creates an action for someone inside an office. A meeting request may go to whoever keeps the diary. A policy request may need a researcher’s advice or, for a minister, a referral to officials in the department. An invitation may sit with someone else again. Put all three in one letter and responsibility becomes unclear.

The office may answer the easiest request, divide the letter between several people or assume another office is handling it. One primary request gives the correspondence one clear owner.

A request can contain necessary detail (a meeting length, preferred timing and subject) without becoming several requests. The test is whether the MP’s staff member reading the correspondence can express the required next action in one sentence.

Advice

• Use one letter for one primary action.
• Make the request specific enough to action.
• Separate unrelated requests into separate correspondence, or hold them back altogether.
• Do not use one letter as a laundry list of grievances.

The required action is unambiguous: arrange one meeting about one issue.

The letter asks the MP to arrange two meetings, endorse a review, write to other office-holders, visit a site and deliver a speech. Those actions would be handled by different people.

3. Does the first paragraph state the conclusion?

Why? The Minto Pyramid Principle gives business writing a top-down structure: the governing message first, the reasons beneath it and the supporting evidence below those reasons.

In a request letter, the conclusion is the action you want the reader to take. In the good letter, that conclusion is the request for a meeting about harmonising bank holidays and their effect on businesses in Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale. The material beneath it explains why that meeting is worth the MP’s time.

If your real request is for the MP to support a policy publicly, write to a minister or table a written question, state that action instead.

The Minto structure applied to the good letter

Conclusion: Meet with us to discuss harmonising bank holidays and the effect on businesses in Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale.

Reasons the meeting is warranted:

• The issue is imposing a measurable cost on businesses in the MP’s constituency.
• The organisation has evidence from this constituency rather than a generic national complaint.
• The organisation can provide the underlying data and a practical proposal for greater coordination.

Supporting evidence: 18 businesses in the constituency reported a direct impact and estimated an additional combined cost of £236,000 in 2025.

Each level supports the one above it. The figures demonstrate local significance; the local significance justifies the briefing; the briefing supports the meeting request.

Advice

• Put the request in the first paragraph, preferably the first sentence.
• Follow it with up to three reasons the MP should agree, but one reason can be enough.
• Put the strongest evidence directly beneath those reasons.
• Keep organisational history to one sentence, if it is needed at all.

A reader who stops after the first sentence still knows the requested action, issue and local relevance.

The letter begins with corporate history. The MP still does not know what is being requested.

4. Is the case tailored to this MP?

Why? Every political office asks some version of the same question: why has this been sent to us?

The answer depends on the recipient. An MP will look for effects on constituents and the constituency. A minister or shadow minister will consider their brief. A member of the House of Lords has no constituency, so their relevance comes from committee work, expertise, a bill they are working on or a public record on the issue.

The devolved parliaments add a further question: is the decision theirs? The Scottish Parliament, the Senedd and the Northern Ireland Assembly make laws on devolved matters only, and the Welsh Government says it cannot answer correspondence on matters that are not devolved.

If the same letter could be sent unchanged to every member of Parliament, it is not genuinely addressed to any of them.

A common slip: quoting Westminster constituency figures in a letter to an MSP or a Member of the Senedd. Holyrood and Senedd constituencies have different boundaries from Westminster’s, so the supposedly local evidence describes somewhere else. If you have addresses or postcodes but not constituency data, GovConnex can map them to Westminster constituencies; for Holyrood and the Senedd, check them against those parliaments’ own boundaries.

Advice

• For a local MP, identify your people, employers, facilities or services in their constituency.
• For a minister or shadow minister, connect the issue to their brief and the decision they can influence.
• For a member of the House of Lords, connect it to their committee work, expertise, a bill they are scrutinising or their public record.
• For a member of a devolved parliament, check the matter is devolved, and use figures for their own constituency or region.
• Read what they have said in Hansard. A newer MP’s maiden speech usually describes the constituency, and often the causes they mean to take up.
• Prefer one credible, relevant local fact over a generic national claim.
• If no genuine local connection exists, explain the recipient’s genuine institutional or political relevance, such as a select committee they sit on.

The evidence gives the Member for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale a clear reason to engage. It is specific, measurable and connected to his constituency.

The claim may be relevant nationally, but it gives this MP no particular reason to prioritise the letter.

5. Is there one clear primary recipient?

Why? Political correspondence needs an owner. Copying a large group of MPs, ministers, departments and political offices can signal that the sender has not identified who should act.

Governments say the same. The Scottish Government passes a letter sent to several ministers to the one with the main portfolio responsibility, and the Welsh Government asks you to write to one minister only: writing to more than one will not bring a fuller or faster reply.

Copy another office only when it has a clear role in progressing the same request.

If several MPs need to be engaged, send separate tailored letters. That creates clear ownership and allows the evidence and relevance to change for each recipient.

A common result: one letter addressed jointly to two MPs in neighbouring seats, with the First Minister copied. No office can tell who is expected to act, so staff first have to call one another to establish who owns it, or simply assume the most senior recipient will handle it.

Advice

• Address the letter to the person best placed to take the requested action.
• Use the To line to establish ownership.
• Write to a minister about their brief at their department, and about their constituency at their parliamentary office.
• Copy a local MP, relevant minister or other office only where their involvement has a defined purpose.
• Do not copy the Prime Minister, a First Minister or the whole Cabinet merely “for visibility”.
• For a broader campaign, use individual letters rather than one wide distribution list.

There is one addressee and one office responsible for deciding whether to arrange the meeting.

The copy line gives three political offices, in two governments, the same correspondence without explaining which one owns the request or why the other two are involved.

6. Have you verified every name, title, honorific and address?

Why? Incorrect details damage credibility before the office reaches the substance of the letter. A misspelled surname, obsolete portfolio or incorrect salutation tells the reader that the correspondence may be generic or thoughtless.

The correct form varies by chamber, office and nation. Not every MP is “The Rt Hon”: the style belongs to members of the Privy Council, who include Cabinet ministers past and present. Members of the House of Lords are not MPs and are written to by their title, as Lord or Baroness. Members of the devolved parliaments use MSP, MS or MLA. Portfolios, committee roles and parliamentary offices change.

The point is not to memorise every convention. It is to verify the details from a current source every time.

Make this the final check, once the letter is finished and just before it leaves your organisation. Open the MP’s current profile in the GovConnex directory, or their page on the parliament’s website, and check each detail against it. If sources conflict, call their office.

The GovConnex directory also has each person’s salutation and current addresses, and exports them as a mail merge when you’re writing to a whole list.

From experience: in a minister’s office, letters arrived almost daily with the minister’s first name misspelled or their title wrong. Such slips are understandable from a distressed constituent, but we regularly saw them from established organisations in the minister’s own sector.

Tip: if you are not sure, call their office and confirm the correct salutation. The person you speak to is likely in the team handling the correspondence.

Verify:

• The spelling of the MP’s full name.
• The correct style, title and post-nominal letters.
• Their chamber, and their constituency or region.
• Any current ministerial, shadow or parliamentary office.
• The correct salutation.
• The postal or email address.
• The date and subject line.
• Your own name, role, mobile number and email address.

The name, style, constituency, email address and salutation all match his current profile on the UK Parliament website.

The letter gives him an office he left in 2019 and a ministerial salutation, and drops “The Rt Hon”. It is also undated and provides no postal or email address.

The good letter in full

Wednesday 5 August 2026

The Rt Hon David Mundell MP
Member of Parliament for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale
By email: david.mundell.mp (at) parliament.uk

Dear Mr Mundell,

Meeting request: harmonising bank holidays

I am writing to request a meeting to discuss the case for harmonising bank holidays across the UK and the impact current differences have on businesses in Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale.

In our June 2026 member survey, 18 businesses in your constituency reported paying additional wages or losing a trading day when Scotland and England observed bank holidays on different days. Together, they estimated the additional cost in 2025 at £236,000.

We would value an opportunity to meet with you to discuss the dates causing the greatest disruption, provide the underlying constituency-level data and outline a practical proposal for greater coordination between the UK Government and the devolved governments.

Your office is welcome to contact me directly on the number below to arrange the meeting.

Yours sincerely

Michael Evangelidis
Chief Executive, Harmonised Bank Holidays UK
07700 900156

The bad letter in full

David Mundell MP
Secretary of State for Scotland
Member of Parliament for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale

Dear Secretary of State

By way of background, the Four Nations Business Council was established in 1998 following discussions between businesses operating across the borders of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Council’s work has expanded considerably during the past decade. We now produce quarterly updates, convene an annual conference, operate working groups on transport, taxation and employment, and maintain relationships with chambers of commerce throughout the UK. Our board includes representatives from retail, logistics, manufacturing, tourism, hospitality and professional services.

The Council has long believed that closer cooperation between the UK Government and the devolved governments would improve the UK’s productivity and international competitiveness. This principle applies across taxation, workforce regulation, infrastructure planning, procurement, licensing and many other areas of government activity.

Bank holidays are not the same across the UK. This creates unnecessary complexity for businesses and reduces national productivity. Members in all four nations have told us the current arrangements are confusing, inefficient and increasingly difficult to administer.

Businesses may need to alter rotas, pay holiday rates, close sites, delay deliveries and explain different arrangements to customers. These issues are particularly acute for organisations operating in more than one nation, although the precise impact differs considerably between industries, locations and workforce structures.

Our board has considered this matter on several occasions. Some directors favour immediate UK-wide harmonisation, while others believe the UK Government should first commission further research and consultation. There are also differing views about which bank holidays should be included and whether any changes should occur at once or be phased in over time.

We therefore ask you to meet with us to discuss this, and request that you support a joint review by the UK and devolved governments, write to the First Minister and the relevant ministers, meet with a delegation of our members, visit our Carlisle distribution centre and deliver the keynote address at our annual conference in November.

We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Yours,

Thomas Smith
Public Policy

CC: the Business Secretary; the First Minister of Scotland

Where the bad letter fails

• 1. It runs to more than one page.
• 2. It makes several requests: two meetings, policy support, letters to other office-holders, a site visit and a conference keynote.
• 3. It leaves the requests until late in the letter.
• 4. It makes generic national claims, with nothing on the MP’s constituency.
• 5. It copies a Secretary of State and a First Minister without saying why.
• 6. It is undated, gives no delivery address, leaves out “The Rt Hon”, and uses a former office and a ministerial salutation.

It is also signed by a public policy adviser, not the chief executive.

Further tips

• Include a direct contact. Give the phone number and email address of the person responsible for the request. For a meeting request, name the assistant authorised to arrange it — staff should not have to search for the right contact.
• Date every letter. Political offices and government departments use correspondence-management systems. An undated letter is harder to log, trace and follow up.
• Use the recipient’s preferred channel. Most MPs list a parliamentary email address. Many government departments ask for correspondence through an online form, which is easier to triage, but some forms do not issue receipts or accept attachments.
• Send attachments to a listed address. If you need to send a PDF or supporting documents, use the address listed on the parliament’s website or by the department. If none is public, call the office and ask which channel staff prefer.
• Send a PDF, not an editable Word document. A PDF preserves the layout across devices and signals that the correspondence is final.
• Keep the file size modest. Oversized logos or letterhead images can prevent a document from being uploaded to an office’s correspondence system.
• Allow reasonable time before following up. For routine correspondence, one week is often too soon. Genuinely urgent matters are different and should be clearly identified as such.
• It is reasonable to confirm receipt. When you call, be concise, patient and courteous. The staff member you speak to may be the person who routes or progresses your letter.
• Mind the calendar. Once Parliament is dissolved for a general election, there are no MPs until after polling day, and ministers hold back from new initiatives under the Cabinet Office’s election guidance. Unless your request cannot wait, hold it for the new Parliament.
• Prepare for the meeting. When the office agrees to meet, send a briefing note ahead of it.

Common questions

How long should a letter to an MP be? One page for the covering letter. Put supporting evidence, analysis or a submission in a clearly labelled attachment.

How do you address an MP in a letter? Use their full name, “The Rt Hon” if they are a Privy Counsellor, “MP” after the name and their constituency, checked against their current profile on the UK Parliament website: for example, “The Rt Hon David Mundell MP, Member of Parliament for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale” and “Dear Mr Mundell”. Not every MP is “The Rt Hon”, and a minister’s title changes with the job.

How do you address a member of the House of Lords? By their title, checked against their profile on the UK Parliament website. Parliament’s guidance opens a letter to a baron with “Dear Lord” and to a baroness with “Dear Lady”, followed by the name in their title. Post goes to the House of Lords, London SW1A 0PW.

Should I email or post a letter to an MP? Use the channel the office prefers. Most MPs list a parliamentary email address; post goes to the House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA. To write to a minister about their brief, use the department’s contact details on GOV.UK.

How long should I wait before following up? For routine correspondence, one week is often too soon. The Scottish Government aims to reply within 20 working days and the Welsh Government within 17. It is reasonable to call and confirm the letter arrived.