Mark Simmonds, October 2009, image from Wikimedia Commons

As a first attempt at our ‘Who’s Who’ series following key individuals in health, I thought it might be worth starting with Mark Simmonds, the Conservative MP and former health spokesman. This was kicked off by a post on Sturdyblog which succinctly gives some backround:

“Mark Simmonds is the former Conservative Shadow Health Spokesman and a vocal supporter of the government’s controversial Health and Social Care Bill. Circle Health pay Mr Simmonds £50k a year (on top of his £65k MP salary) for 10 hours’ work a month, as “an advisor”.

“Circle Health is a “subsidiary in a complex corporate structure that spans the British Virgin Isles and Jersey”. It’s backers include Paul Ruddock and Crispin Odey – two of the biggest Tory party donors.”

This was “in the light this morning’s news of a private company being awarded, for the first time, the running of a hospital. And which company is the beneficiary of that £1bn deal? It is Circle Healthcare.”

You can find voting records and other political information on Mark Simmonds on TheyWorkForYou.

Anything you can add? (That isn’t libellous of course!)

UPDATE: From Jonathan Hewett in the comments:

His latest entry in the House of Commons register of members’ financial interests is here:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmregmem/111116/simmonds_mark.htm
It shows payments received for his work as chair of Mortlock Simmonds Brown Ltd (known as msbl), and a shareholding in Mortlock Simmonds Ltd. msbl describes itself as a “specialist retail property advisor to occupiers and landlords” (from its website here: http://www.msblproperty.com/about.php ). Its website has a section setting terms and conditions to which anyone using it apparently agrees:http://www.msblproperty.com/legal.php
The register appears to describe Circle Healthcare as a “social enterprise”.
The Telegraph has details from its MPs’ expenses work here:
http://parliament.telegraph.co.uk/mpsexpenses/mp-details/Mark-Simmonds/mp-11224