Ambulance Fleet data collection

Frequency: annual

The NHS is committed to reducing carbon emissions and improving the sustainability of its operations, with particular focus on the ambulance fleet. Accurate and comprehensive data collection is essential to monitor progress towards environmental targets, ensure compliance with national policies, and support strategic decision-making. 

The Ambulance Fleet data collection is an annual data collection on emergency and non-emergency fleet vehicles. The primary purpose is for national oversight of ambulance fleet, to support ambulance fleet policy development and improvement and provide benchmarking data through Ambulance Improvement analytical products. The data is crucial to maintain an oversight of the age and mileage profile of the NHS emergency response fleet. The collection also supports better modelling of the NHS Carbon footprint, better targeting of funds for capital projects, supports financial analysis of planning for Greener NHS net zero vehicle targets, acts as an evidence base to support funding commitments and enables benchmarking between providers. It also provides an overview of the composition of the overall NHS fleet, which supports the delivery of action set out in other statutory guidance, including Green Plan Guidance and Net Zero Travel and Transport Strategy.

This data collection is completed by all NHS Ambulance Trusts.

Data is collected annually after the end of each financial year. 

Registered users will have access to the exact submission dates in the Data Collections Framework.

Existing NHS England statutory duties to collect will be used:

Article 6(1)(e) – ‘…exercise of official authority…’ for statutory duties:

13C. Duty to promote NHS Constitution

This collection supports the NHS Constitution’s principles of transparency, accountability and best value by publishing comparable fleet productivity and efficiency insights (via Model Health System) that help providers and national teams understand performance and direct resources to where they deliver the greatest benefit.

By providing a consistent national evidence base (and reducing duplication with other collections through clear guidance), it helps NHS England and ambulance trusts make decisions and improvements in ways that align with the Constitution’s commitments to high-quality services and sustainable use of public funds.

13D. Duty as to effectiveness, efficiency etc.

The collection directly enables more effective and efficient fleet management by allowing ambulance trusts to benchmark fleet productivity, utilisation and cost effectiveness against peers and identify opportunities for improvement.

It also supports economical use of resources by informing targeted national investment decisions (including major ambulance replacement funding) and by scheduling and designing the collection to reduce reporting burden and duplication across the system.

13E. Duty as to improvement in quality of services

By generating actionable insights for ambulance trusts to improve productivity and operational performance, which in turn supports service delivery, the collection contributes to continuous improvement in outcomes for supporting fleet services. Maintaining oversight of the age and mileage profile of the emergency response fleet also supports safer, more reliable service capability, aligning with the statutory requirement to pursue continuous improvement in effectiveness, safety and patient experience outcomes.

13NC. Duties as to climate change

The data collection is a primary input to NHS carbon footprint modelling and the Greener NHS measurement framework, enabling NHS England to measure and evidence progress towards net zero travel and transport objectives and related statutory guidance. It helps NHS England have regard to climate duties in practice by providing the evidence base to plan and prioritise decarbonisation interventions.

In order for NHS England to contribute towards compliance with section 1 of the Climate Change Act 2008 (UK net zero emissions target) it must be able to (a) measure the NHS-related carbon account and (b) “ensure” that the NHS-related carbon account contributes towards compliance of at least 100% reduction on 1990 baseline.