Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how often the NHS has made use of Private and Voluntary ambulances in the last five years; whether the NHS is planning to reduce or increase their use; and what is the estimated impact of their use on costs to his Department.

The requested information is not held. National Health Service ambulance trusts may procure support from private ambulance services during periods of peak demand to supplement the NHS’ ambulance fleet. Ambulance availability is therefore monitored on a daily basis by each NHS ambulance trust.

With regard to expenditure on private ambulance services, NHS England does not collect this data, as decisions to engage private emergency ambulance support are made at the frontline operational level.