We have to ensure consistency across the country, so we will act on the best medical and scientific evidence that we have got.

The Secretary of State outlined earlier how we would keep colleagues in the House informed on these matters during the recess, and I shall come on to that now. The Secretary of State confirmed earlier that, following our request, strategic health authorities will provide weekly briefings for MPs coinciding with the Health Protection Agency's national updates. They will cover the kinds of information that the hon. Gentleman requested, which are important to all Members as constituency MPs. The information will include the numbers of diagnosed and confirmed cases and of hospitalisations, updates on antiviral collection points, and local information on any clusters or other specific developments. There will also be a hotline number to the local SHA so that Members have a direct line to express any concerns, make any inquiries and establish what the position is locally. Local arrangements will vary across the country-the hon. Gentleman talked about his constituency being particularly rural-so this local contact is extremely important. I can also assure the House that the civil contingencies committee will meet weekly during the summer months and Ministers and officials will be in close contact and in dialogue with their counterparts in the devolved Administrations to ensure a consistent UK-wide approach.

The hon. Gentleman raised the important issue of the national pandemic flu service. We have always been clear that it would be virtually impossible to limit the spread of swine flu indefinitely, and in recent weeks it has become apparent that it is no longer effective to continue intensive efforts simply to contain the virus. As a result, we switched our emphasis to treating the increasing numbers getting the virus. I also wish to echo the comments of the hon. Gentleman and of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State earlier by thanking all health workers both on the front line and behind the scenes who have been dealing with the increasing numbers of people with swine flu.

The national health service is coping extremely well and we should pay tribute to its ability to respond to times such as this. As the number of cases continues to grow, we will need to give extra support, so the national pandemic flu service will be instrumental in taking the strain off doctors' surgeries. When we took the decision to move from containment to treatment, we were clear that the service should be brought into play as soon as it was needed on the ground, so I should stress once again that the technology to launch the flu service has now been available for some time. We have been anticipating and waiting for the point when we saw a significant spread across many areas of the country before it became worth while and sensible to launch the service nationally.

What we have seen in recent days is exactly that eventuality, for which we have been planning and working. A significant acceleration in the spread has taken place, with 55,000 new cases of swine flu reported last week and an equivalent increase in pressure on front-line services. To give an illustration, on 8 July just six primary care trusts reported exceptional levels of flu-like illness, whereas one week later, on 15 July, the figure had increased to 110. It was at that point that the Secretary of State took the decision to activate the national pandemic flu service-the decision was based on demand, not on the availability of technology. This means that the service will go live in England by the end of this week, subject to testing, and will be accompanied by a major public information campaign.

After the launch, people will no longer need to ring their general practitioner if they suspect they have swine flu. Instead, they will be able either to answer questions online via the new website or ring the call centre service, where trained staff will be able to assess them over the phone. If swine flu is confirmed, they will then get an authorisation number, which their flu friend can use to pick up antivirals from local antiviral collection points. As I said earlier, hon. and right hon. Members will receive information on the location and number of collection points as part of a weekly update through their strategic health authority.