In this section: Public services
Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust: funding, staff and response times
Last updated . Figures refresh every night. How each figure is worked out.
£153m for Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust in 2025-26, £79.24 per resident, −22.4% on a year earlier after inflation.
Figure as of unknown date. Source: Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust, Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust.
Key figures
- £153m2025-26, cash −19.7% on a year earlier
- £79.24Per resident, 2025-26
- 1,594 FTEStaff (full-time equivalent), 2026-06 Northern Ireland: 1,594 FTE
- 11.8 minutesCategory 1: average response (Northern Ireland), 2026-03 Northern Ireland: 11.8 minutes
- 76.6 minutesCategory 2: average response (Northern Ireland), 2026-03 Northern Ireland: 76.6 minutes
Sources: Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust, Department of Health (Northern Ireland).
Over time: cash, real terms and per resident
Real terms use HM Treasury’s GDP deflator, 2025-26 prices. Breaks in the series: 2017-18: England’s response categories 1 to 4 and their standards (the Ambulance Response Programme) began in 2017; the NHS England series here starts with them. Earlier red/green figures are not comparable. 2022-23: Scotland: response times from April 2022 are provisional while the Scottish Ambulance Service revises its definition. 2023-24: England: handover times are in AmbSYS from October 2023, replacing the winter situation reports. 2025-26: Wales: a new clinical response model from July 2025 (purple, red, orange, yellow, green); the old red 8-minute measure ends in June 2025 and the two are not comparable. 2026-27: England: integrated care boards merged in April 2026; the trust areas are drawn on the new boards. From August 2026 NHS England moved some ambulance data to the Ambulance Data Set, and the latest month is revised the month after.
The numbers behind this chart
| Year | Real terms (2025-26 prices) | Cash |
|---|---|---|
2023-24Details for 2023-24 | £167.2m | £155.3m |
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2024-25Details for 2024-25 | £196.9m | £190.3m |
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2025-26Details for 2025-26 | £152.8m | £152.8m |
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Figure as of unknown date. Source: Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust, Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust.
Per resident divides by ONS mid-year population estimates.
The numbers behind this chart
| Year | Per resident, 2025-26 prices | Per resident, cash |
|---|---|---|
2023-24Details for 2023-24 | £87 | £81 |
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2024-25Details for 2024-25 | £102 | £99 |
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2025-26Details for 2025-26 | £79 | £79 |
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Figure as of unknown date. Source: Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust, Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust.
Source: Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust, Northern Ireland Ambulance Service HSC Trust, Annual Report and Accounts 2025-26; Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust, Northern Ireland Ambulance Service HSC Trust, Annual Report and Accounts 2024-25.
Where it sits, and what is below it
- UK total
- Nation
- Department or service body (this level)
- Local body not published
- Spending category
- Line or transaction not published
Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust
Total operating expenditure, trust (consolidated statement of comprehensive net expenditure); staff costs. 2024-25 is raised by a £56.3m provision expense (mostly a £55.6m increase in provisions), which fell back to £5.1m in 2025-26; the service's net expenditure funded from its revenue resource limit was £124.2m in 2024-25 and £136.1m in 2025-26.
£153m in 2025-26 (cash); £153m in 2025-26 prices; £79.24 per resident; −19.7% on a year earlier in cash, −22.4% in real terms.
| Spending category | Cash, 2025-26 | Real terms (2025-26 prices) | Per resident | Real change on a year earlier | Source | Below this |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
StaffDetails for Staff | £109m | £109m | £56.27 | +8.8% | Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust | Line or transaction not published: The annual accounts break spending down no further than staff and other costs in a form that is comparable year to year, so no finer lines are shown. |
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Everything else (supplies, vehicles, premises, depreciation and other costs)Details for Everything else (supplies, vehicles, premises, depreciation and other costs) | £44m | £44m | £22.96 | −54.5% | Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust | Line or transaction not published: The annual accounts break spending down no further than staff and other costs in a form that is comparable year to year, so no finer lines are shown. |
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Cash is as published. Real terms are in 2025-26 prices, using HM Treasury’s GDP deflator. Per resident divides by ONS mid-year population for the area the body serves. Changes compare the same body in consecutive years.
What is recorded alongside the money
These figures are published beside the funding, not as its result. Demand, geography, recording practice and many other things differ between areas and change over time; none of these charts shows cause and effect.
| Measure | Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust | Northern Ireland | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
Staff (full-time equivalent)Details for Staff (full-time equivalent) | 1,594 FTE | 1,594 FTE | 2026-06 |
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Category 1: average response (Northern Ireland)Details for Category 1: average response (Northern Ireland) | 11.8 minutes | 11.8 minutes | 2026-03 |
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Category 2: average response (Northern Ireland)Details for Category 2: average response (Northern Ireland) | 76.6 minutes | 76.6 minutes | 2026-03 |
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All staff employed by the trust or service, full-time equivalent, as each nation’s workforce statistics count them (England and Wales: NHS staff statistics; Northern Ireland: HSC workforce statistics; Scotland: the service’s accounts). Counts include NHS 111 and patient transport staff where the service runs them, so they are not like-for-like between nations.
The numbers behind this chart
| Year | Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust | Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|
2021-06Details for 2021-06 | 1,464 | 1,464 |
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2022-06Details for 2022-06 | 1,501 | 1,501 |
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2023-06Details for 2023-06 | 1,492 | 1,492 |
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2024-06Details for 2024-06 | 1,434 | 1,434 |
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2025-06Details for 2025-06 | 1,509 | 1,509 |
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2026-06Details for 2026-06 | 1,594 | 1,594 |
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Figure as of unknown date. Source: Department of Health (Northern Ireland).
Mean response time for category 1 calls under Northern Ireland’s clinical response model, monthly. The categories follow England’s, but the model and its recording are Northern Ireland’s own. Target: 8 minutes (Northern Ireland category 1 mean).
The numbers behind this chart
| Year | Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust | Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|
2025-04Details for 2025-04 | 10.6 | 10.6 |
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2025-05Details for 2025-05 | 11.0 | 11.0 |
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2025-06Details for 2025-06 | 11.6 | 11.6 |
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2025-07Details for 2025-07 | 11.7 | 11.7 |
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2025-08Details for 2025-08 | 12.4 | 12.4 |
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2025-09Details for 2025-09 | 11.9 | 11.9 |
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2025-10Details for 2025-10 | 12.2 | 12.2 |
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2025-11Details for 2025-11 | 12.4 | 12.4 |
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2025-12Details for 2025-12 | 13.0 | 13.0 |
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2026-01Details for 2026-01 | 13.0 | 13.0 |
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2026-02Details for 2026-02 | 12.0 | 12.0 |
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2026-03Details for 2026-03 | 11.8 | 11.8 |
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Figure as of unknown date. Source: Department of Health (Northern Ireland).
Mean category 2 response time, monthly. Target: 18 minutes (category 2 mean).
The numbers behind this chart
| Year | Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust | Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|
2025-04Details for 2025-04 | 53.1 | 53.1 |
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2025-05Details for 2025-05 | 62.5 | 62.5 |
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2025-06Details for 2025-06 | 66.4 | 66.4 |
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2025-07Details for 2025-07 | 65.3 | 65.3 |
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2025-08Details for 2025-08 | 80.4 | 80.4 |
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2025-09Details for 2025-09 | 74.5 | 74.5 |
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2025-10Details for 2025-10 | 77.8 | 77.8 |
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2025-11Details for 2025-11 | 85.4 | 85.4 |
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2025-12Details for 2025-12 | 107.4 | 107.4 |
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2026-01Details for 2026-01 | 141.1 | 141.1 |
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2026-02Details for 2026-02 | 89.9 | 89.9 |
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2026-03Details for 2026-03 | 76.6 | 76.6 |
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Figure as of unknown date. Source: Department of Health (Northern Ireland).
What these figures do and don't show
- Each nation measures response times its own way. England uses categories 1 to 4 with national standards; Wales moved to a new model in July 2025, which breaks its series; Scotland and Northern Ireland publish their own measures. Times are compared within a nation, never across.
- No Treasury figure for ambulances. HM Treasury counts ambulance services inside medical services, so the UK figure here is the sum of the services’ own accounts, for years all of them have.
- Handover delays are hospital as well as ambulance. Time lost at hospital handover depends on the hospital’s capacity as much as on the ambulance service.
- Vehicle numbers are not published as official statistics for any nation.
- Nothing here shows cause and effect.
Where this sits: Ambulance services, United Kingdom → Northern Ireland → Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust. Figures from data/services/ambulance.json, generated 29 September 2026.
Use this data
The figures belong to the bodies that published them and are used under their terms, listed in Sources for this page; most are Crown copyright under the Open Government Licence. Only our own words, analysis, charts and derived calculations are ours, published under CC BY 4.0: reuse them, including commercially, if you credit Tekstak Ltd and link back to this page.
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Sources for this page
| Source | Publisher | Figures as of | Updated | Licence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northern Ireland Ambulance Service HSC Trust, Annual Report and Accounts 2025-26 | Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust | — | annual | Open Government Licence v3.0 |
| Northern Ireland Ambulance Service HSC Trust, Annual Report and Accounts 2024-25 | Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust | — | annual | Open Government Licence v3.0 |
| HSC workforce statistics, June 2026 | Department of Health (Northern Ireland) | — | annual | Open Government Licence v3.0 |
| Hospital statistics: emergency care activity 2025/26 (ambulance tables) | Department of Health (Northern Ireland) | — | annual | Open Government Licence v3.0 |
Each source's figures are used under the licence shown. Our own words, analysis, charts and derived calculations are ours, under CC BY 4.0.