Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the 111 service in the south-east; and if he will make a statement. [156630]

Anna Soubry, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Public Health: There have been problems with the roll-out of NHS 111 in the south-east.

A range of indicators are used to measure performance of providers, and a number of these have not been met in the south-east coast region of the NHS (there are a number of providers in the wider region as the south east is not a specific NHS area).

We recognise that the service has not been good enough and we are working closely with NHS England to ensure improvement in performance. NHS England have put a number of measures in place already. NHS England area teams have been keeping a close oversight of the issues and are supporting local clinical commissioning groups and individual providers to ensure the service improves. NHS England has close monitoring arrangements, including where necessary daily, and also reports weekly on performance to the Secretary of State for Health. They will continue to do so until the key performance indicators are routinely met. We expect to see continued improved performance week on week into the summer.

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