Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent discussions his Department has had with the North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust on its ability to meet emergency 999 calls in the Greater Manchester area.

There have been no recent discussions between the Department and the North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust on these matters. Decisions about ambulance services are a local matter and it is for clinical commissioning groups to ensure appropriate services are provided to their populations.

Patients have a right to high quality and reliable urgent and emergency care, whenever they call on it, and we expect all ambulance trusts to provide this.

The North West Ambulance Service met the three ambulance performance standards for 2013-14 and in April 2014.