Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on how many occasions the ambulance service has used Resource Escalation Action Plan levels (a) 3 and (b) 4 in winter in each of the last 10 years.

The information requested is not centrally collected. The use of Resource Escalation Action Plans is a matter for National Health Service ambulance trusts. No such guidance has been issued. This year the NHS was better prepared than ever before to meet the challenges of winter. The NHS and the Department undertake rigorous planning each year, putting in place robust plans to ensure resilience throughout the winter period. This planning includes ambulance trusts. Additionally, in place for this year, is a revised escalation framework encompassing all levels of the system – local, regional and national – to ensure a greater standardisation of response to winter pressures. This is overseen by the newly formed, clinically led, National Emergency Pressures Panel.