This week, the Government unveiled 21 hospital trusts who will have the chance to make the case for new buildings. East Sussex Healthcare Trust was one of the 21 selected. There is now the opportunity to put a business case together and have our sites in Eastbourne and Hastings improved.

• Huw Merriman MP dresses in pink to support Breast Cancer Now’s flagship fundraiser wear it pink
• wear it pink helps Breast Cancer Now fund vital breast cancer research and support

Huw Merriman has welcomed news that children and young people in the Bexhill and Battle constituency are to benefit from additional mental health support. 

This week, I once again spoke in the Chamber on the worrying topic of knife crime. Knife crime is a blight on our society and an issue close to my heart following my experience working in a youth centre in Brixton and Camberwell Green.

In Parliament, Huw spoke of the harm that bullying and harassment on social media is causing to young people. He said social media companies often operate under the laws of the US and not the laws of the UK and should be held to account for content that is posted on their sites in this country.

In Parliament this week, Huw asked the Housing Minister to look at long-term funding for local authorities that takes into account the age-range of the people living there.

In Parliament, Huw continued to lobby for social care reform by asking the Health and Social Care minister to look at the German system of compulsory social care insurance when considering proposals for the Green Paper on social care.

Huw has been lobbying Government for extra funds for East Sussex. In welcoming the extra funding in the Local Government settlement, he spoke in House of Commons to thank Parish, Town, District & County Cllrs for their work. He then focussed on radical reform to social care funding so we can care for more people locally and fund other services.

Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Rt Hon Matt Hancock, accompanied by the Rt Hon Amber Rudd, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Huw Merriman MP for Bexhill and Battle, made an informal visit to Bexhill and Conquest Hospitals to meet staff and patients.

Huw spoke up for a constituent whose employment was terminated due to a spent conviction. He urged the Work and Pensions minister to ensure that public sector employers take a risk on ex-offenders and do not continue to punish them long after their sentence has been spent.