Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the Ambulance Response Programme in the East Midlands Ambulance Service .

The Government accepts that urgent and emergency care performance has, in recent years, been short of the standards the public rightly expect. We are determined to put things right.

Our Urgent and Emergency Care Delivery Plan for 2025/26 commits to reducing ambulance response times for Category 2 incidents to 30 minutes on average this year. We are also tackling unacceptable ambulance handover delays by introducing a maximum 45-minute standard, ensuring ambulances are released more quickly and get back on the road to treat patients.

We have already seen improvements in response times across the country, including in the East Midlands. The latest national figures for the East Midlands show that Category 2 'emergency incidents' were responded to in 32 minutes 35 seconds on average. This is faster than the 36 minutes 8 seconds seen in July 2024.