Great Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust: Manpower

Robert Key
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the (a) required and (b) actual number of paramedics is in the Great Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust.

Mr. Bradshaw
The Department does not set specific requirements for numbers of paramedics. Work force planning is a matter for individual trusts to undertake, working with their commissioners and strategic health authorities. Plans need to be, and are, regularly reviewed as circumstances change.

Data are available for ambulance staff breakdown, as at September 2006, through the Information Centre for health and social care 2006 Non-Medical Workforce Census. There were 375 ambulance paramedics up until 30 September 2006, when the last work force census was taken.