Ambulance Services: Standards
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average wait time is for an NHS ambulance response to a Category 1 emergency in (a) Boston and Skegness constituency and (b) the UK.
Answered by Karin Smyth
The Boston and Skegness constituency is served by the East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EMAS). The latest National Health Service figures show that in December 2025, the average Category 1 response time in EMAS was nine minutes 12 seconds. This compares to the national average of seven minutes 59 seconds.
Through our Urgent and Emergency Care Plan for 2025/26, we are taking action to improve ambulance response times across England, including in Lincolnshire. The plan commits to reducing average response times for Category 2 incidents to 30 minutes this year. Supported by almost £450 million of capital investment, we are expanding same-day and urgent care capacity, delivering 500 new ambulances, and enhancing the speed and quality of care for the most seriously ill and injured patients. 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.
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