Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average wait time is for an NHS ambulance response to a Category 1 emergency in (a) Boston and Skegness constituency and (b) the UK.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Boston and Skegness constituency is served by the East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EMAS). The latest National Health Service figures show that in December 2025, the average Category 1 response time in EMAS was nine minutes 12 seconds. This compares to the national average of seven minutes 59 seconds.
Through our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26, we are taking action to improve ambulance response times across England, including in Lincolnshire. The plan commits to reducing average response times for Category 2 incidents to 30 minutes this year. Supported by almost £450 million of capital investment, we are expanding same-day and urgent care capacity, delivering 500 new ambulances, and enhancing the speed and quality of care for the most seriously ill and injured patients. We are also tackling unacceptable ambulance handover delays by introducing a maximum 45-minute standard, supporting ambulances to be released more quickly and get back on the road to treat patients.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
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 (a) operational risk and (b) physical demands of Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) personnel within NHS ambulance services; and whether he has plans to review the current pension and retirement framework for HART staff alongside other uniformed emergency services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Hazardous Area Response Teams (HART) provide National Health Service care in high-risk environments, guided by national Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response standards. Operational risks are managed through a nationally consistent safe system of work, including Standard Operating Procedures, risk assessments and specialist training. Each ambulance trust supplements these with local risk assessments. Physical demands are addressed through national recruitment standards and mandatory six-monthly Physical Competency Assessments, with restrictions and support if standards are not met. NHS England commissions the Resilience Emergency Capabilities Unit to maintain standards and deliver specialist training.
The NHS Pension Scheme is designed to reward lifelong service to the NHS and is considered exceptionally generous. The Department considers that the current pension arrangements reflect the physical and operational demands on HART staff.
The scheme has many flexible retirement options to allow staff to retire sooner than normal pension age, with pensions reduced accordingly to account for the fact they are paid for longer. Even when taken years before Normal Pension Age, an NHS Pension can provide for a comfortable living and gives exceptional value to staff.
For those facing severe ill-health, the scheme allows for ill-health retirement at any age without a reduction in pension benefits. Additionally, members can access the Early Retirement Reduction Buy Out option, which enables retirement up to three years earlier without a reduction to benefits, with costs sometimes shared by ambulance service employers.
Aligning the NHS Pension Scheme with those of other emergency services, such as police and fire, would require higher contributions from all NHS staff. There are no plans at present to risk pension affordability for NHS staff or to equalise the normal pension ages of all emergency workforces.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure local health services are prepared to respond to incidents of mass carbon monoxide exposure in (a) Surrey and (b) Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
All National Health Service organisations, including in Surrey, are required to prepare for, and respond to, a wide range of incidents or emergencies that could adversely affect the health of the population.
In the event of an incident of mass carbon monoxide exposure, ambulance services can dispatch a Hazardous Area Response Team. This provides the initial NHS response with trained and equipped paramedics who can safely enter a contaminated area to support casualties and provide clinical care.
As an integrated care board, NHS Surrey Heartlands has policies for emergency preparedness, resilience, and response, in order to support local resilience partners and maintain critical services in the event of an incident.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
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 effectiveness of helipad provision within NHS services in (a) Surrey and (b) Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Air ambulances form a vital part of the emergency response to patients in critical need. The Department of Health and Social Care continues to work closely with NHS England and the Department for Transport on helipad accessibility for air ambulances across the country, including in Surrey.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
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 impact of rising demand for ambulance services on Category 2 performance in the east of England.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) has experienced sustained growth in demand in recent years. In the current financial year-to-date, to November 2025, the service has responded to over 640,000 incidents. This represents the highest year-to-date total to November since records began in 2018/19, and an increase of more than 40,000 incidents compared to the same period last year.
Despite increased demand, Category 2 performance has improved. In the current financial year to date, to November 2025, the mean Category 2 response time has been 34 minutes 56 seconds.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
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 level of ambulance handover delays at James Paget Hospital in each of the past three years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England publishes monthly data on ambulance handovers, including at the James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust over the past three years. This information is available at the following link:
In addition, weekly handover data split by day is also published as part of national winter reporting. This information is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/uec-sitrep
We are working closely with the trust and system partners to deliver ongoing, evidence-based improvement to ambulance handovers. Key actions include the Release and Respond Programme since December 2024, which targets long delays and supports rapid handovers, new protocols for managing hospital capacity and safe patient flow, enhanced discharge planning and long length-of-stay reviews, Same Day Emergency Care investment enabling same-day assessment and treatment, and enhanced geriatrician support for early assessment and frailty management.
These initiatives are already delivering positive results with the average handover time reducing by 27 minutes in November 2025 compared to November 2024. Furthermore, current four-hour performance for November stands at 73.4%, up 10.3% from last November.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Daventry)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average ambulance response time for Category 2 calls was in rural parts of the East Midlands in each of the last 12 months; and how this compares with response times in urban areas in the region.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We acknowledge that ambulance performance has not consistently met expectations in recent years, and we are taking serious steps to improve performance across the country, including rural and semi-urban areas. That is why we published our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26, backed by almost £450 million of capital investment, which commits to reducing ambulance response times for Category 2 incidents to 30 minutes on average this year.
The NHS Constitutional standards for ambulance response time metrics are measured with an average figure as well as a 90th centile standard which means that trusts are held to account for the response times they provide to all patients, improving the performance management of the ‘long tail’ of delayed ambulance responses that we know can particularly affect rural and semi-urban areas. In the East Midlands, the latest NHS England figures show a 22-minute improvement in the Category 2 90th centile response time compared with last year.
We have already seen improvements in ambulance response times for the East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (EMAS). The latest National Health Service performance figures for EMAS show that Category 2 incidents were responded to in 46 minutes and 55 seconds on average, over 11 minutes faster than the same period last year.
Asked by: Stuart Andrew (Conservative - Daventry)
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 ambulance response times in rural areas of the East Midlands; and what steps are being taken to improve response times in those communities.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We acknowledge that ambulance performance has not consistently met expectations in recent years, and we are taking serious steps to improve performance across the country, including rural and semi-urban areas. That is why we published our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26, backed by almost £450 million of capital investment, which commits to reducing ambulance response times for Category 2 incidents to 30 minutes on average this year.
The NHS Constitutional standards for ambulance response time metrics are measured with an average figure as well as a 90th centile standard which means that trusts are held to account for the response times they provide to all patients, improving the performance management of the ‘long tail’ of delayed ambulance responses that we know can particularly affect rural and semi-urban areas. In the East Midlands, the latest NHS England figures show a 22-minute improvement in the Category 2 90th centile response time compared with last year.
We have already seen improvements in ambulance response times for the East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (EMAS). The latest National Health Service performance figures for EMAS show that Category 2 incidents were responded to in 46 minutes and 55 seconds on average, over 11 minutes faster than the same period last year.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
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 South Central Ambulance Service’s decision on crew break arrangements on ambulance wait times in Newbury.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No specific assessment has been made. Operational arrangements such as scheduling and management of crew breaks is the responsibility of individual ambulance trusts which are required to comply with United Kingdom employment law and National Health Service contractual standards.
The South Central Ambulance NHS Foundation Trust is currently piloting a new approach to ambulance crew breaks. The change is designed for the benefit of both staff and patients, supporting crews to take their meal breaks at allocated times alongside responding effectively to patient demand by maintaining coverage over the region during peak periods.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking with the South Central Ambulance Service to reduce ambulance wait times for people in Newbury constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises that in recent years ambulance response times have not met the high standards patients should expect.
We are determined to turn things around and have taken serious steps to achieve this. Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26, backed by almost £450 million of capital investment, commits to reducing ambulance response times for Category 2 incidents to 30 minutes on average this year. The South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SCAS) has a dedicated Category 2 performance team driving improvements through targeted interventions.
We have already seen improvements in ambulance response times in SCAS, which serves Newbury. The latest NHS performance figures for SCAS show that Category 2 incidents were responded to in 31 minutes 54 seconds on average, over six minutes faster the same month last year.