To ask the Minister of Health whether any contingency planning is in place to ensure access to healthcare services, including ambulance provision and hospital appointments, is maintained during planned fuel price protests.

Healthcare Services in Northern Ireland have the ability to deal with a range of emergencies or potential emergencies through an ongoing process of assessment, planning, testing and review. This aligns with the Northern Ireland Civil Contingencies Framework structures for Prepare, Respond and Recover.

This preparation includes planning for unexpected, short-term emergencies and longer-term ‘rising tide’ events. Part of this preparation is to have robust Business Continuity Plans to maintain critical business as usual services.

In line with the procedures for alerting agencies in the Respond Phase (NI Civil Contingencies Framework) the Department of Health and HSC Trusts attended the Local Impact Assessment Call facilitated by the Regional Resilience Team on 10th April 2026. This provided an updated assessment of the intelligence surrounding the proposed fuel protests, their potential locations, duration and scale.

As an outcome of this assessment call, PSNI established a Strategic Co-ordinating Group and three local Tactical Co-ordinating Groups to share the latest assessments and information on the proposed fuel protests with partners. These provided a Strategic overview and local impact assessments.

Departmental staff and NIAS were represented on the Strategic Co-ordinating Group and NIAS and the appropriate Trust were represented on the geographical Tactical Co-ordinating Groups located in Belfast, Ballymena and Newry. These groups met at regular intervals from 12th April to 14th April 2026. This multi-agency partnership working is critical to HSC preparedness and response.

Receiving the latest briefings on the proposed fuel protests allowed Trusts to assess the potential impacts on scheduled or unscheduled services and staffing/resourcing because of the proposed protests. Agreed messaging was shared on various platforms across agencies, internally and externally.

With these measures in place, Trusts were able to manage business as usual and to be prepared to activate business continuity measures or escalate any impacts as required. There were no reported impacts on services.