Ambulance Service

Mr. Corbyn

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list, for each year since 1979, the total number of ambulance vehicles, staff and costs, at 1989 prices by region.

The information requested is shown in the tables:

Region	1979–80	1980–81	1981–82	1982–83	1983–84	1984–85	1985–86	1986–87	1987–88
South Western	472	479	479	490	484	480	447	457	438
West Midlands	691	704	749	749	728	713	690	713	702
Mersey	310	302	302	306	338	351	387	393	393
North Western	601	595	614	608	616	568	534	532	556
Total	6,542	6,670	6,717	6,807	6,605	6,491	6,440	6,459	6,482
Notes:
¹ The total number of vehicles used to transport patients.
² The figures for the south west Thames region include those for the London ambulance service.

National Health Service Ambulance Staff in post by region At 30 September each year
whole-time equivalent
Region	1979	1980	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988
England	17,129	17,768	18,221	18,324	18,397	18,103	18,188	18,966	19,010	18,761
Northern	1,415	1,446	1,473	1,474	1,482	1,424	1,396	1,401	1,390	1,357
Yorkshire	1,404	1,548	1,606	1,622	1,630	1,604	1,596	1,640	1,666	1,573
Trent	1,780	1,798	1,842	1,890	1,904	1,905	1,934	1,968	1,979	1,961
East Anglia	581	597	599	626	638	646	675	770	772	773
North West Thames	475	465	492	484	467	456	456	488	541	525
North East Thames	510	534	566	584	565	537	542	591	593	594
South East Thames	870	908	938	942	943	950	949	957	951	920
South West Thames	592	641	638	637	633	596	629	667	663	675
Wessex	906	907	947	954	943	952	946	990	978	952
Oxford	727	730	753	762	750	750	757	815	837	835
South Western	1,375	1,401	1,408	1,424	1,438	1,430	1,441	1,470	1,482	1,455
West Midlands	1,764	1,809	1,873	1,849	1,889	1,849	1,880	1,936	1,914	1,917
Mersey	799	826	852	870	894	910	893	947	955	932
North Western	1,605	1,653	1,649	1,688	1,703	1,584	1,605	1,668	1,701	1,687
London Ambulance Service	2,325	2,506	2,587	2,519	2,518	2,505	2,491	2,659	2,587	2,605

Source: Department of Health (SM13) Annual Census of National Health Service non-Medical manpower.

Note: All figures are independently rounded to nearest whole-time equivalent.

Total revenue expenditure on ambulance services (at 1988–89 prices)
£'000s
Regions	1979–80	1980–81	1981–82	1982–83	1983–84	1984–85	1985–86	1986–87	1987–88	1988–89 ¹
Northern	23,226	24,625	24,527	24,141	23,503	22,857	22,661	23,297	22,820	22,207
Yorkshire	23,015	24,920	25,036	24,515	25,129	24,883	24,964	25,921	25,651	24,687
Trent	28,119	29,958	29,388	29,311	29,175	29,409	29,074	30,958	30,957	30,009
East Anglian	11,673	12,324	12,328	12,207	12,761	12,632	12,614	13,562	13,370	13,073
North West Thames	19,779	21,725	22,126	21,282	20,381	20,110	20,334	22,389	8,759	8,696
North East Thames	21,583	23,616	24,020	23,265	22,717	22,072	22,303	24,643	9,389	9,149
South East Thames	23,792	25,759	25,852	25,409	25,066	24,336	24,039	25,916	15,673	15,252
South West Thames	17,976	19,603	19,813	19,301	18,866	18,495	18,453	19,816	58,143	57,622
Wessex	16,095	16,944	17,019	17,035	17,363	17,476	17,439	18,384	18,025	16,975
Oxford	12,960	13,225	13,176	12,973	12,669	12,411	12,183	13,402	13,507	13,462
South Western	22,524	23,162	22,857	22,813	22,962	22,821	22,539	24,989	25,049	24,150
West Midlands	29,746	30,973	30,608	29,979	29,668	30,106	29,696	31,684	32,052	30,886
Mersey	12,857	14,115	14,207	13,824	13,773	13,930	13,846	15,122	15,095	14,619
North Western	26,307	28,185	27,489	27,235	27,571	26,416	26,153	27,259	26,700	25,439
ENGLAND TOTAL	289,651	309,134	308,445	303,290	301,606	297,951	296,298	317,344	315,189	306,283
¹ 1988–89-Provisional cash figures (as yet subject to audit).

Sources: Annual accounts of regional and district health authorities in England (those of their predecessor authorities for the years prior to 1982–83).

Notes to the table:

1. The figures have been expressed at 1988–89 prices by the use of the Gross Domestic Product Deflator.

2. From 1987–88 the South West Thames regional health authority accounts for the expenditure of the London Ambulance Service. In earlier years the costs were shared by the four Thames regional health authorities.

Volume 163: debated on Friday 8 December 1989