I appreciate there is a growing concern regarding the spread of the coronavirus.

As I write this, the Prime Minister has warned that there could be a very significant expansion in the number of cases, and we have seen people infected in towns such as Buxton which has led to a lockdown and school closure.

Let me reassure you that the NHS is well prepared to deal with incidents like this, and I am assured that the Government has a clear path to ensure the public is protected.

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has announced strengthened legal powers to bolster public health protections against the coronavirus. The regulations have been put in place to reduce the risk of further human-to-human transmission in this country by keeping individuals in isolation where public health professionals believe there is a reasonable risk an individual may have the virus.

The UK is one of the first countries to have developed a world-leading test for the new coronavirus, and the NHS is ready to respond appropriately to any cases that emerge.

Clinicians in both primary and secondary care have already received advice, covering initial detection and investigation of possible cases, infection prevention and control, and clinical diagnostics.

The Government has also provided £20million to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations to produce a vaccine to combat coronavirus, but this will take time.

UK aid to the World Health Organisation (WHO) will also help prevent the spread of the virus in developing countries, by supporting them to rapidly identify and care for patients with symptoms. Additional experts funded by UK aid will be deployed to the WHO to help coordinate the international response all these actions will help the international response to what is approaching a world pandemic.

It is clear that the virus will be with us for some time, but I know my ministerial colleagues and others are working around the clock to ensure the public is protected.

I was extremely disappointed last month when the Government decided to proceed with the  HS2, project despite the extraordinary increase in its cost.

As I told the Prime Minister when he made the announcement, "HS2 is unloved and unwanted, and has been grossly mismanaged. It very adversely affects my constituents. This could well be an albatross around this Government's and the country's neck, and does it not set the bar very low for the delivery of infrastructure projects on time and on budget by all future Governments."

I have made the arguments against HS2 many times so I won't get into that again. I still think that   the most flawed part of the route is phase 2b from Birmingham to Leeds the part that affects our district.

To have the East Midlands station at Toton is a nonsense as there will be further huge infrastructure cost in trying to link a small village in Nottinghamshire to the rest of the East Midlands.

I have yet to meet anyone who wishes to travel from London to Toton ! It would make more sense to slow the route down and have more stations on the line, which at least would provide some benefit to the communities adversely affected.

There is to be a review of how costs can be reduced on this part of the route and I will be contributing towards this whilst continuing to oppose the concept of the project. I will oppose any moves to reduce costs through reducing compensation for those affected or environmental protections.

What would make more sense is to reopen the Ivanhoe Line and I have had meetings with the Rail Minister to support the bid for funding from Government's £500 million fund for restoring disused railway lines.

I would like to acknowledge the hard work that had been carried out by the Campaign to Reopen the Ivanhoe Line (CRIL) in presenting a submission to the Department of Transport and thank them and my colleagues in Parliament Heather Wheeler, Kate Griffiths and Luke Evans for their support to get trains running through our constituency again.

Coalville is the fifth largest town in the UK without a railway station and Swadlincote is the seventh,  so I remain optimistic that we have a good case to present to the Government.