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Ambulance Services: Emergency Calls

Asked by Mr Tanmanjeet Singh DhesiLabourDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled Answered 30 March 2026UIN 122540

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether Ambulance call handlers are required to have working knowledge of (a) What Three Words and (b) the NATO phonetic alphabet.

Answered by Karin Smyth

There is no national requirement for ambulance call handlers to have working knowledge of What3Words or the NATO phonetic alphabet, as responsibility for delivering and implementing training to call handlers on use of What3Words and the NATO phonetic alphabet sits with individual ambulance services.

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