HC Deb 24 July 2002 vol 389 cc1410-1W
Mr. Heald

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will publish the latest available figures for ambulance response times to category A calls, listed by ambulance trust, stating (a) what proportion of responses were achieved within eight minutes and (b) for those responses which took longer than eight minutes, how long it took for the ambulance to respond. [68278]

Mr. Lammy

[holding answer 10 July 2002]: The latest information about the proportion of emergency calls resulting in an ambulance arriving at the scene of the reported incident within the Government's target response times is contained in the Department of Health Statistical Bulletin "Ambulance Services, England 2001–02". A copy of the bulletin is in the Library and available at www.doh.gov.uk/public/sb0213.htm.

Dr. Evan Harris

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what assessment he has made of the accuracy of data collected on ambulance response times; [71178]

(2) what monitoring is undertaken to ensure the quality of ambulance response time statistics. [71179]

Mr. Lammy

The Department has no evidence that data on ambulance response times is inaccurate.

All ambulance services and their performance are subject to audit by those commissioning their services and by the Audit Commission.