David Ruffley

David Ruffley MP will be attending a top level meeting between Suffolk's MPs and Suffolk Primary Care Trust (PCT) on Friday 23 February at 4pm.

The meeting is to update local MPs on the PCT's plans for services in West Suffolk and to discuss future possibilities.

The PCT's current concern is that services are developing in the east of the county and not in the west.

David said:

David Ruffley MP will be visiting Wattisham Airfield on Friday 23 February, at the invitation of Lt Col C J Claydon MBE, to show his support for the Army Air Corps servicemen and women who are based there.

David will be given a tour of the Airfield which is home to Britain's WAH-64 Apache helicopter force.

David will receive a confidential briefing on operations from Wattisham and will take lunch in the Officers' Mess.

During the visit David hopes to meet with some of the families of the servicemen and women based at Wattisham.

David said:

David Ruffley MP has today released new House of Commons figures which reveal that between 2005 and 2006 the number of convictions for domestic violence in Suffolk rocketed by 52 percent.

The figures were given in answer to David's questioning of Tony McNulty, Minister of State at the Home Office.

In 2005 there were 428 convictions for domestic violence in Suffolk. In 2006 this number increased to 652.

During the same period convictions for domestic violence in England rose by 37 percent.

David Ruffley MP visited Wattisham Base on Friday 23 February, at the invitation of Lt Col C J Claydon MBE, to show his support for the Army Air Corps servicemen and women who are based there.

A number of the Army Air Corps personnel based at Wattisham have served in the Middle East and Bosnia. Many have also served and will be serving in Afghanistan later this year.

David was given a tour of the base and a detailed look at the WAH-64 Apache helicopter.

David was then taken on a flight over the Bury St Edmunds constituency in a Westland Lynx.

WHILE Cabinet ministers debate whether or not the Government should endorse marriage, everyone agrees that the existing benefit system works against those who choose to tie the knot.

There is growing evidence that couples negotiating their way through an increasingly complex system of tax credits and benefits are finding that they are better off living apart.

The number of people out of work and on long-term sickness benefits because of stress and mental disorders has soared since 1997, say the Conservatives.

The figures, revealed yesterday in answers to parliamentary questions, show almost 1.1m people were claiming incapacity benefit last year who said they were unable to take a job because of problems with mental health, up from 730,000 in 1997.

THE number of benefit claimants who say they can't work because of eating disorders, stress, alcohol abuse, anxiety and mood swings is soaring.

Almost 1.1million are now living on incapacity benefit as a result of mental disorders and behavioural problems.

Those claiming as a result of stress have trebled while the number with eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia has more than doubled since Labour took power.

The number of alcoholics and drug addicts claiming incapacity benefit has increased by 80 per cent - from 76,200 in 1997 to 136,700 last year.

David Ruffley MP has today written to the head of the Politics department at each of the Upper Schools in his constituency and invited their students to submit questions to him which he will then answer on his new internet TV channel Ruffley TV.

David will select the best question from each school and answer them in a video on Ruffley TV and in a podcast which students will be able to download from his website and listen to on their iPods.

David said:

'My new website has fantastic scope for interactivity with the people of Suffolk.

David Ruffley MP has today written to David Miliband, Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, asking what support the Government will be giving to Suffolk farmers following the outbreak of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza at a poultry farm in the county.

East Anglia is the biggest producer of eggs, including those from free-range and organic hens, in Britain. The area is also a major supplier of poultry meat, including free-range chicken, turkey and duck.

David Ruffley MP has today released new House of Commons figures obtained during his questioning of Vernon Coaker MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Home Office.

David's question revealed that the number of recorded drug offences in Suffolk has gone up for the fourth year in a row.

In 2005/06 there were 2,015 recorded drug offences in Suffolk. This is

40 percent more than in Cambridgeshire and 10 percent more than in Norfolk.