Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support the provision of emergency co-responders in (a) rural and (b) coastal areas.

The Government recognises the important contribution of co-responders in improving response times, particularly in hard-to-reach rural and coastal communities.

The Department supports the provision of emergency co-responders in rural and coastal areas through the Community First Responders (CFR) programme, where volunteers are trained by the ambulance service to attend certain types of emergency calls in the area where they live or work.

Ambulance trusts are responsible, on an individual basis, for taking decisions on the capacity and support needed to deliver their services in their local areas.