Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average ambulance response time was for each category in each of the last 24 months.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the national mean average ambulance service response times in England, in minutes and broken down by category, in each of the last 24 months:
Year | Month | Category 1 mean | Category 2 mean | Category 3 mean | Category 4 mean |
2022 | November | 0:09:26 | 0:48:10 | 2:42:14 | 3:21:43 |
2022 | December | 0:10:58 | 1:32:55 | 4:18:16 | 4:34:56 |
2023 | January | 0:08:30 | 0:32:06 | 1:26:09 | 1:48:46 |
2023 | February | 0:08:30 | 0:32:20 | 1:42:39 | 2:12:24 |
2023 | March | 0:08:49 | 0:39:33 | 2:13:39 | 2:51:49 |
2023 | April | 0:08:07 | 0:28:33 | 1:30:54 | 1:54:17 |
2023 | May | 0:08:17 | 0:32:22 | 1:46:10 | 2:20:15 |
2023 | June | 0:08:41 | 0:36:47 | 2:05:38 | 2:45:28 |
2023 | July | 0:08:21 | 0:31:49 | 1:50:11 | 2:21:31 |
2023 | August | 0:08:17 | 0:31:30 | 1:45:27 | 2:07:18 |
2023 | September | 0:08:31 | 0:37:39 | 2:16:04 | 2:41:45 |
2023 | October | 0:08:41 | 0:41:43 | 2:31:14 | 2:51:00 |
2023 | November | 0:08:31 | 0:38:30 | 2:16:32 | 2:36:57 |
2023 | December | 0:08:44 | 0:45:57 | 2:37:12 | 2:55:53 |
2024 | January | 0:08:25 | 0:40:06 | 2:12:53 | 2:42:45 |
2024 | February | 0:08:25 | 0:36:20 | 2:04:15 | 2:33:06 |
2024 | March | 0:08:20 | 0:33:50 | 2:03:47 | 2:29:48 |
2024 | April | 0:08:10 | 0:30:22 | 1:42:13 | 2:03:16 |
2024 | May | 0:08:16 | 0:32:44 | 2:00:00 | 2:21:11 |
2024 | June | 0:08:21 | 0:34:38 | 2:02:34 | 2:20:58 |
2024 | July | 0:08:15 | 0:33:25 | 2:01:21 | 2:21:47 |
2024 | August | 0:08:03 | 0:27:25 | 1:30:33 | 1:56:10 |
2024 | September | 0:08:25 | 0:36:02 | 2:12:54 | 2:32:51 |
2024 | October | 0:08:38 | 0:42:15 | 2:41:28 | 2:57:18 |
Source: the data is published by NHS England, and is available at the following link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ambulance-quality-indicators/
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) foetuses, (b) infants and (c) children have been diagnosed with trisomy 21 in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Disease Registration Service in NHS England collects and quality assures data about people with congenital anomalies and rare diseases across the whole of England. The service does not hold data in the relevant form for children.
The following table shows the requested information for fetuses and infants between 2018 and 2021, the period for which complete data is available:
Birth year | Number of babies born alive | Number of babies stillborn | Number of terminations | Number of late miscarriages | Number of fetuses | Total number of babies and fetuses with T21 |
2018 | 731 | 31 | 803 | 12 | 815 | 1,577 |
2019 | 685 | 28 | 838 | 9 | 847 | 1,560 |
2020 | 673 | 35 | 839 | 16 | 855 | 1,563 |
2021 | 700 | 24 | 1,049 | 12 | 1,061 | 1,785 |
Source: NCARDRS Congenital Anomaly Official Statistics Report, 2021
Notes:
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the uptake of Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine among eligible infants.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Official vaccine coverage estimates for the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine are measured for eligible children at three months and 12 months old, and are published quarterly by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), and annually by NHS England. The UKHSA’s quarterly figures and NHS England’s annual figures are available, respectively, at the following two links:
The latest data captures BCG coverage at the age of three months old for children born 1 January to 31 March 2024, and at 12 months old for children born 1 April 2023 to 30 June 2023. Measured at three months, coverage in England was 77.4%, and measured at 12 months, it was 84.5%.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of NHS preparedness for a pandemic.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Ensuring the United Kingdom is prepared for a future pandemic is a top priority for the Government, and the Department continuously reviews and updates our pandemic preparedness to reflect the latest scientific information, lessons learned from exercises, and our response to previous emergencies.
The Department is working with NHS England, the UK Health Security Agency, and its partners across the health and care system to maintain a flexible and scalable set of capabilities which can be adapted to respond to any future threats, across all routes of infectious disease transmission. The Department’s approach to pandemic preparedness also takes into account the underlying resilience of the health and care system.
NHS England is an active participant in this work and has made several improvements that will help resilience in a future pandemic, including on the coordination and escalation of a national healthcare response, high consequence infectious disease and infectious disease capacity, and critical care capacity, surge and transfer plans.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve the uptake of routine childhood immunisations.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In England, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) works closely with NHS England, the Department, and wider health system partners at the national, regional, and local levels to improve uptake of the routine childhood immunisations and catch-up children who missed out.
The first UKHSA Childhood Immunisation communication campaign, encouraging parents to ensure their child’s vaccinations were up to date, ran from 4 March until mid-April 2024. The most recent campaign ran from 26 August until 4 October 2024.
To raise awareness of potential vaccination benefits and increase awareness of the programmes the UKHSA also provides a comprehensive suite of public facing resources, including information leaflets in multiple languages and accessible formats, for instance easy read, British Sign Language, and braille, and provides comprehensive clinical guidance, including e-learning programmes and training, for healthcare professionals.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of a dental school in Lincolnshire.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is for individual universities to decide whether they wish to establish a dental school. Before a university, such as the University of Lincoln, can apply to receive Government-funded dental school places, it needs to have met the requirements of the General Dental Council, the Office for Students and obtained “dental authority status” from the Privy Council. The Office for Students has statutory responsibility for allocating dental school places.
We will be working with NHS England to assess the need for more dental trainees in areas such as Lincolnshire, where we know that many people are struggling to find a National Health Service dentist.