Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the level of service provided by the East Midlands Ambulance Service.

Ambulance services are busier than ever. The latest data for November 2014 shows that East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EMAS) is not meeting the three national standards:

- Red1 A - 72.8% (standard 75%)

- Red2 A - 71.5% (standard 75%)

- A19 – 93.7% (standard 95%)

The NHS Trust Development Authority, Care Quality Commission, clinical commissioning groups and other local trusts continue to work together to support the Trust, which has recovery plans in place.

As part of record operational resilience planning for winter, we have provided an additional £50 million to support ambulance trusts locally in managing extra demand. Nationwide, we have 1,700 more paramedics since 2010.