Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what representations his Department has received on Southend University Hospital in each of the last two years; and if he will make a statement.

A search of the Department’s Ministerial correspondence database has identified 44 items of correspondence received in 2013 and 44 in 2014 about Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. This is a minimum figure that represents correspondence received by the Department’s Ministerial correspondence unit only.

My noble Friend, Earl Howe (the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Quality) has agreed to meet with the hon. Member for Southend West on this matter on 5 March 2015.