§ Mr. PikeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will list the criteria for defining rural and urban areas in compiling ambulance response times; and if she will make a statement.
§ Mr. SackvilleThe formula for classification of national health service ambulance services as urban or rural was introduced following the acceptance of a recommendation made in an independent consultants report in 1990. Those ambulance services serving an area with an overall population density of greater than 2.5 people per acre were classified as urban. Others were classified as rural. The population density formula acknowledges the higher number of longer distance journeys travelled by ambulance services in less densely populated rural areas.