Tory Tim Loughton has overtaken the Lib Dems' Norman Baker as the Sussex MP most likely to put ministers on the spot.

During the last parliamentary session, Mr Loughton, MP for East Worthing and Shoreham, asked 668 written questions.

Only five MPs in the country made more written inquiries, each of which costs civil servants an estimated £123 to answer.

Topics raised by Mr Loughton included hospital bed blocking and police recruitment levels.

The total was enough to push him past Lewes MP Mr Baker, who topped the list last year.

This year Mr Baker was ranked 11th after asking 597 questions on topics such as animal experiments and flooding.

Mr Loughton, a Tory shadow health minister, also topped the Sussex list of face-to-face questions in the House of Commons by putting ministers on the spot 25 times during the last session.

Mid Sussex MP Nicholas Soames was second, questioning ministers in the Commons 21 times and tabling 56 written questions, while Mr Baker asked 20 oral questions.

Eastbourne's Conservative MP Nigel Waterson asked 17 questions and 178 written inquiries.

Crawley's Labour MP Laura Moffatt asked 14 oral questions and tabled 31 written questions.

Bognor and Littlehampton Tory MP Nick Gibb grilled ministers face-to-face 13 times and made 187 written inquiries.

Bexhill and Battle Tory MP Gregory Barker asked 11 oral questions and 280 written ones.

He was closely followed by West Worthing Tory MP Peter Bottomley, Arundel and South Downs Tory MP Howard Flight and Hastings Labour MP Michael Foster on seven oral questions.

Mr Bottomley asked 123 written questions, Mr Flight 150 and Mr Foster eight.