Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the NHS's definition of corridor care reflects the range of settings in which patients receive care; and what steps her Department is taking to ensure that ambulance patients waiting outside hospitals are recorded and reported within official data on corridor care and emergency care pressures.

The NHS England’s definition of corridor care covers patients receiving care in appropriate settings in emergency departments and general and acute wards. Ambulance handover delays are excluded from this measure and are reported separately.

NHS England publishes ambulance handover data through its Ambulance Quality Indicators and Ambulance Management Information statistics, which are available at the following two links respectively:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ambulance-quality-indicators/

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ambulance-quality-indicators/ambulance-management-information/

The 2026/27 winter planning guidance expects ambulance handovers to take place within 15 minutes, with none exceeding 45 minutes. This separate reporting enables ambulance handover delays to be monitored alongside corridor care as part of the wider picture of urgent and emergency care pressures.