Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the Wait 45 policy on (a) ambulance release times and (b) levels of corridor care in hospitals.

The Department has not made a specific assessment. However, ambulance handover delays have improved since last year, and monthly average national handover times have been under 30 minutes since May 2025.

As part of the preparations for winter, the Department and NHS England have asked all services to develop and test winter plans, including specific actions to improve flow through hospitals and making progress on eliminating corridor care.