Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many ambulance handover delays exceeding one hour occurred in England in each of the last five years.

Ambulance handover data is collected and published monthly. It is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ambulance-quality-indicators/ambulance-quality-indicators-data-2021-22/

Publication of handover data began in October 2023.

We have introduced a maximum 45-minute standard for ambulance handovers through the Urgent and Emergency Care Plan 2025/26, supported by the Medium Term Planning Framework for 2026/27 to 2028/29. This ensures patients are transferred to hospital care more quickly and frees up ambulance crews for urgent calls.