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 times were in (a) York and North Yorkshire and (b) England for the latest period for which figures are available; and what steps his Department is taking to help reduce ambulance response times.

The information requested is not held for York and North Yorkshire. However, the following table shows the mean average response time in hours minutes and seconds for each category in England and the Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) and England in March 2022.

The National Health Service is implementing its Urgent and Emergency Care Recovery Action Plan to improve patient flow through hospital to help improve performance in accident and emergency (A&E) departments, accelerating patient handovers and releasing ambulances to respond new calls. The Plan aims to ensure that medically fit patients can be discharged earlier, increase the role of NHS 111 to assist people to access the appropriate primary care service and avoid additional demands on urgent care and A&E.