Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department took as a result of the Regulation 28: Report to Prevent Future Deaths notice issued by the Coroner Area of Nottinghamshire to his Department on 26 May 2016.

East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust outlined a range of actions in the response to the Regulation 28 report including:

- the agreement of an increased funding settlement to £152.5 million for 2016/17 with commissioners (an increase of £9.2 million on 2014/15), with an additional £2.4 million being paid to cover additional costs incurred as a result of hospital handover delays;

- actions to reduce staff turnover; and

- work with local acute hospitals to reduce the impact of patient handover delays.

NHS Improvement, commissioners and the Care Quality Commission continue to work with the Trust to improve its response time performance. This package of support includes a formal demand and capacity review, which is currently underway. This will help to inform commissioners’ approach to funding the Trust in 2018/19 to ensure it has the appropriate level of resource to meet the new national performance standards.