To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 29 March 2007, Official Report, column 1787W, on hospital closures: media interest, what methodology was used to arrive at predictions of media interest as indicated on the heat maps released by her Department on 7 November 2006. (131875)

As was stated in the earlier answer, the Department uses a range of methods to monitor media activity. The maps were produced following routine discussions with strategic health authorities (SHAs) and gave an indication of possible future local media coverage of health issues by SHA.