Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of ambulance response times in Eastleigh constituency.

The Government recognises that in recent years ambulance response times have not met the high standards that patients should expect.

We are determined to turn things around. Our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26, backed by almost £450 million of capital investment, commits to reducing ambulance response times for Category 2 incidents to 30 minutes on average this year. We are also tackling unacceptable ambulance handover delays by introducing a maximum 45-minute standard, supporting ambulances to be released more quickly and get back on the road to treat patients.

We have already seen improvements in ambulance response times for the South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SCAS), which serves Eastleigh. The latest NHS performance figures for SCAS show that Category 2 incidents were responded to in 30 minutes 44 seconds on average, over eight minutes faster than the same period last year.