Member of Parliament

At the 2005 general election Penning stood in the Labour-held seat of Hemel Hempstead, narrowly defeating sitting MP Tony McWalter. Penning overturned McWalter's 2001 majority of 3,742 votes and won the seat (after a partial recount) by 499 votes. In July 2007, Penning was promoted by Conservative Leader David Cameron to the post of Shadow Minister for Public Health.

The Buncefield fire occurred on 11 December 2005 and led to some 2,700 claims for compensation.^[7] In the words of neighbouring MP Peter Lilley, "There is something providential about the fact that the worst fire in western Europe since the Second World War should occur in a constituency represented by a fireman. It was undoubtedly in the interests of all his constituents and mine to have someone so knowledgeable, as well as so vigorous in their response, to represent their interests."^[8] Penning, who arrived on the scene within half an hour of the explosion, had himself been trained to deal with much smaller petroleum fires; the scenario was that one tank not twenty was affected.^[9]

Dexion workers, 700 of whom worked in the constituency,^[10] lost their pensions when the company went into receivership in 2003. Dexion played a prominent part in Ros Altmann's Pensions theft campaign.^[11] Penning, whose support for Dexion preceded his election, offered compensation from unclaimed assets in his 2005 Manifesto^[12] and has spoken on the issue 26 times in Parliament.^[13] Dexion pensioners were featured celebrating a victory at the High Court in February 2007 which eventually led to increased compensation from the then-Labour government.^[14]

According to Theyworkforyou.com, Penning spoke in an "above average" number of debates from 2009 to 2010 and replied to a "very high number" of messages. He also received replies to an "above average" number of written questions.^[15] The quality of those questions was disputed by a 2006 The Times article about the Theyworkforyou website which Penning used to email constituents.^[16] His 624 questions in 10 months included one on sales of lost property in Royal Parks since records began. The newspaper suggested the objective was to increase ratings on the website,^[16] an allegation rejected by Penning.

Penning "occasionally rebelled", with two per cent of his votes being against the Whip, and was "very strongly" in favour of a smoking ban. Penning's parliamentary expenses details have been published as part of a general publication of all MPs' expenses. In 2009, he claimed a total of £135,078, 502nd of all MPs.^[15] The Legg Report found no problem with his expenses.^[17] Penning did, however, voluntarily repay £2.99 for a dog bowl, which was the lowest recorded repayment by any MP.^[18][19]

Minister of State

After the 2010 election, Prime Minister David Cameron appointed him a Minister of State for Transport, with roads and shipping being among his responsibilities.^[27] In his capacity as Minister for Shipping, Penning presented Efthimios Mitropoulos (immediate past-IMO Secretary-General) with the insignia of KCMG in Greece on behalf of the Queen.^[28] In his role as Road Safety Minister, he suggested that the Dutch could learn about cyclist safety from the British. However, cycling ambassador Roelof Wittink said that although the UK had a lower death toll per head of population, the Dutch use bicycles far more and have one third of the fatalities per mile cycled.^[29]

In the reshuffle of 4 September 2012, Penning was moved to become Minister of State for Northern Ireland, a position he held for just over a year until being promoted to become Minister of State for Disabled People on 7 October 2013.^[1][30] He was subsequently promoted a second time on 15 July 2014 to serve as both the Minister of State for Policing and the Minister of State for Justice, and was also sworn of the Privy Council.^[31] Following the 2017 election, he was sacked as a minister by Prime Minister Theresa May.