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 improve ambulance waiting times in the (a) North West and (b) UK.

NHS England and NHS Improvement advises that the North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust has secured 55 new ambulances, alongside the temporary retention of a further 45 vehicles over winter. The Trust has also recruited additional paramedics and emergency medical technicians, alongside training ambulance care assistants to blue light driving standard. This has allowed 269 additional frontline staff to be deployed.

National Health Service ambulance trusts are being supported by NHS England and NHS Improvement to improve ambulance waiting times through an extra £55 million to increase staff numbers for winter, providing over 700 additional staff in control rooms and on the frontline. This includes £1.85 million to place more hospital ambulance liaison officers at the most challenged hospitals to help address ambulance queues and get crews quickly back out on the road.

Ambulance waiting times outside England is a devolved matter.