[5] During Parliamentary recess in 2011, Mills volunteered with Voluntary Service Overseas in Tajikistan in a placement designed to improve the business environment and therefore stimulate the creation of jobs for more economically and socially vulnerable groups in the country.

In 2012 Mills volunteered again in Tajikistan with VSO, advising the government on how to improve the business environment to attract investment and create jobs.

[7] Mills attracted media attention in December 2014 after being caught playing Candy Crush on his iPad during a Work and Pensions Committee meeting, reportedly over a two and a half hour period.

[17] In the 2024 United Kingdom general election he lost his seat to Labour’s Linsey Farnsworth with his vote share dropping by 38.6%.

[18] Mills was the partner of Gillian Shaw, the Conservative candidate for Amber Valley in the general elections of 2001 and 2005; she died of cancer in 2006.

[citation needed] In November 2013, Mills shared The Spectator's Parliamentarian of the Year Award along with 14 other MPs for voting against tighter regulation of the press, which had been proposed following developments such as the News International phone hacking scandal.