Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to encourage diversity in the workforce of ambulance services in England.

Ambulance services, like all employers across the National Health Service, are responsible for improving the diversity of their workforce to reflect the communities they serve.

This month, the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives pledged their commitment to NHS England’s Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) in a renewed effort to improve diversity in ambulance trusts.

As part of their NHS standard contract, each ambulance trust will focus on four WRES indicators. They will set short, medium and long term goals to address:

- the number of black and minority ethnic staff in their workplaces;

- the shortlisting and application rates of candidates from BME backgrounds;

- bullying, harassment and abuse by patients and the public; and

- bullying, harassment and abuse by colleagues.