Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will estimate the Government spend per head of population on ambulance services in (a) Nottinghamshire, (b) the East Midlands and (c) England in each of the last three years.

No estimate of the Government spend per head of population on ambulance services in Nottinghamshire, the East Midlands and England in each of the last three years will be made.

Commissioning of urgent and emergency care, and therefore the amount of funding allocated, is the responsibility of clinical commissioning groups – this includes ambulance service provision for their local populations.

Nationally, the ambulance service is performing well — arriving on scene in under eight minutes in more than 75% of the most life-threatening cases, but there are still some areas where improvements can be made.

Latest monthly figures for April 2014 show the ambulance service did not meet the Red 2 response time standard:

- Category A8 Red 1 performance was 75.2% (above the 75% standard)

- Category A8 Red 2 performance was 73.6% (below the 75% standard)

- Category A19 performance was 95.8% (above the 95% standard)

Full year figures (April 2013 to March 2014) show the ambulance service nationally achieved two of the response time standards:

- Category A8 Red 1 performance was 75.6% (above the 75% standard)

- Category A8 Red 2 performance was 74.8% (below the 75% standard)

- Category A19 performance was 96.1% (above the 95% standard)

The Urgent and Emergency Care Review, led by Sir Bruce Keogh, is currently considering whole system change to the delivery of urgent and emergency care, including new models of delivery of care for ambulance services.

The first phase of the Review was published last November. We expect NHS England to be publishing further reports later this year.