Tom Brake

I am encouraging all schools in Carshalton and Wallington to get involved in the Really Good School Dinner programme - the UN's initiative to help feed thousands of school children in poor and developing countries.

The programme, run by the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) encourages school children, for one week in February to buy a school meal and donate 10p.

Each 10p then pays for a whole meal for a child in a developing country. It helps them get an education - many children in the developing world would not be able to go to school unless a meal was provided as they would have to work instead in order to feed themselves.

This initiative, now in its fourth year has been incredibly successful - already helping to feed over 450,000 school children in 60 countries across the world.

We should be incredibly proud that schools in England have such an impressive record at helping the poorest school children in the world.

I encourage everyone to get involved in this campaign and help provide both a meal and an education to some of the world's poorest.

For more information and to download free resources, please visit:

www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk/reallygoodschooldinner

Last week I pledged my support for The Times' 'Cities fit for Cycling' campaign - the campaign that aims to improve the infrastructure in cities across the UK to make them more accommodating - and safer - for cyclists.

In the past ten years more than 27,000 cyclists have been killed or seriously injured on British streets.

The newspaper has introduced an eight point manifesto which aims to eliminate, or reduce some of the most dangerous aspects of cycling in our cities. They include ensuring that all lorries have proper sensors, mirrors and alarms to stop cyclists being thrown under the wheels; limiting the speed limit to 20mph in residential areas without cycle lanes; highlighting the 500 most dangerous road junctions and making sure they are properly redesigned; putting aside 2% of the highways agency budget (£100million) and using it to create some world class cycling infrastructure.

The Times has also proposed a series of small but practical measures that would make cycling safer and more accessible. These measures include raised cycle lanes with kerbs, separate traffic lights for cyclists and a registration system for bikes to make cyclists more accountable on the roads.

Over 22,000 people have pledged their support for the campaign and a Parliamentary debate on the issue has been secured for the end of February.

This is a great campaign with plenty of sensible but also life saving changes at its heart. As a cyclist myself, I understand the need for substantial change both in terms making the roads safer for cyclists, but also ensuring that drivers are aware of cyclists and drive accordingly.

This is an issue of great importance and I'm glad it is getting the attention it deserves. I urge everyone to support this campaign and get our roads fit for cycling.

For more information about the campaign, visit: www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/contact/

I have sought assurances from the Prime Minister, David Cameron over the future of St Helier Hospital in Carshalton.

I took the opportunity to raise the issue directly with the Prime Minister in Parliament after it was announced last Monday that the St George's Trust had withdrawn from a proposed merger with the Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust. Long running negotiations over the merger had been ongoing, but St George's decision to pull out of the process has now left St Helier in a vulnerable position.

I asked the David Cameron whether he would guarantee that the Trust would be allowed the time and money it needs to allow for the development of the hospital and associated care centres.

I have since received a response from the Chief Secretary to the Treasury who assures me that the funding - £219million - remains in place. This is positive news, however, there is still much to be done and I will be working with medical, community and voluntary sector partners to find an acceptable way forward.

Here in Sutton we have fought long and hard to secure the future of our local hospital, and now is no different. We need to focus urgently on all the alternatives available to us, which could involve close cooperation between Trust, GPs and Sutton Council.

Jan Sawkins, Chair of the Board set up to help St Helier, Sutton and Epsom hospitals to achieve foundation trust status, has stated:

"Whilst we are making decisions about the long-term future of the our hospitals our priority will - as ever - continue to be ensuring our patients and local people receive the very best services."