Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support his Department is providing to South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust.

NHS England and NHS Dorset support the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT) through a range of national, regional, and local improvement arrangements, including:

• joint SWASFT and acute provider work to improve urgent and emergency care pathways and reduce delays in transferring patients from ambulances into hospital care, which helps to improve patient flow through hospitals, and improve ambulance availability;

• operational performance reporting, which supports the development and evaluation of alternative pathways, including community-based services accessed through a Single Point of Access; and

• ongoing monitoring through NHS England's ambulance oversight arrangements and the Ambulance Quality Indicator programme.