Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the announcement of 6 July 2018 on investment in new ambulances for the NHS, what steps he is taking to ensure that those ambulances are made in the UK.

The Government recently announced funding for 256 new ambulances across five ambulance trusts.

The procurement will ensure that a fair and transparent process is undertaken which takes into account value for money and other social considerations as permitted by the Public Contract Regulations 2015.

The procurement of new ambulances is constituted of two elements- the purchase of the base vehicle and conversion into the ambulance, according to the required specification.

Purchase of the base vehicles is currently undertaken by individual ambulance trusts, using Crown Commercial Services framework contracts. Through this process, the ambulance trusts receiving funding are planning to purchase either Fiat or Mercedes base vehicles.

The conversion- which typically constitutes a much larger cost than purchase of the base vehicle- is contracted by individual trusts. Currently trusts use six converters and four of the six are United Kingdom registered companies, based upon the contracting arrangements put in place by ambulance trusts locally.

Lord Carter of Coles is currently undertaking an independent review of the operational productivity of ambulances services, including the effectiveness of fleet and variations in ambulance specification and procurement. This review is due to conclude and make recommendations shortly. Any of the 256 ambulances which are not planned to be operational by winter will be procured under arrangements which reflects any changes made in response to Lord Carter’s recommendations, which will require one specification of ambulance to be used by all ten ambulance trusts.