Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce ambulance handover delays at hospitals in Shropshire.

The Government recognises the pressures on the National Health Service and the impact this is having on ambulance response times, including in Shropshire.

We are determined to turn things around, and our 10-Year Health Plan will be published in the summer, setting out major NHS reforms to move healthcare from the hospital to the community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention.

The Urgent and emergency care plan 2025/26, published on 6 June 2025, requires health systems to focus on those areas that are likely to have the biggest impact on urgent and emergency care services this year. The plan includes actions that will reduce ambulance handovers to 45 minutes, helping to get 550,000 more ambulances back on the road. The plan is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/urgent-and-emergency-care-plan-2025-26/