FOI 25-161 Sexual Harassment or Assault by SAS Staff
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 25-161 Sexual Harassment or Assault by SAS Staff
- Request Date
- 03 Apr 2025
- Response Date
- 02 May 2025
- Information Requested
I would like to request the following information:
1a) How many legal claims (employment tribunals or civil court cases) has the Scottish ambulance service settled in the last five years (January 1 2019 - December 31 2024) , broken down by year, that involve an element of sexual harassment or sexual assault by an employee of the Scottish ambulance service?
1b) How much money has the SAS paid out in compensation in the above cases, if any? Please provide a breakdown per case.
1c) How many legal cases are ongoing (not settled) currently where the SAS is a respondent, which involve sexual harassment or assault by an employee of the SAS?
2) How many Scottish ambulance service staff have been subject to disciplinary proceedings as a result of sexual harassment or sexual assault in the last 10 years (January 1 2015 - December 31 2024) broken down by year?
3) How SAS staff have been dismissed due to sexual harassment or sexual assault in the last 10 years ((January 1 2015 - December 31 2024) broken down by year?
- Response
1a) How many legal claims (employment tribunals or civil court cases) has the Scottish ambulance service settled in the last five years (January 1 2019 - December 31 2024) , broken down by year, that involve an element of sexual harassment or sexual assault by an employee of the Scottish ambulance service?
1b) How much money has the SAS paid out in compensation in the above cases, if any? Please provide a breakdown per case.
1c) How many legal cases are ongoing (not settled) currently where the SAS is a respondent, which involve sexual harassment or assault by an employee of the SAS?
There have been <5 legal claims against Scottish Ambulance Service staff that have been settled or are ongoing.
Public authorities are not required to create information in order to answer a request. There’s a distinction between creating new information, and compiling information. Where a request can be answered by
compiling information from readily-available resources held by the public authority, this is not the same as
creating new information. However, if collation of the information would require skill and complex
judgement, the information is not held.Financial information for each case is not held in a way that allows us to report on the compensation on each case. It is for this reason we have applied section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002, as information not held.
2) How many Scottish ambulance service staff have been subject to disciplinary proceedings as a result of sexual harassment or sexual assault in the last 10 years (January 1 2015 - December 31 2024) broken down by year?
The Scottish Ambulance Service implemented a change in our system, for this reason, information on employee relation cases is only available from 2017 onwards.
There have been 7 staff accused of sexual harassment from 2017 –2024. Any further breakdown could result in information becoming identifiable.
There have been no staff accused of sexual assault.
3) How SAS staff have been dismissed due to sexual harassment or sexual assault in the last 10 years (January 1 2015 - December 31 2024) broken down by year?
There have been <5 staff dismissed from the Scottish Ambulance Service for sexual harassment or sexual assault from 2017-2024. Any further breakdown could result in information becoming identifiable.
For the given data, you will see that some of the figures are shown as, five or less than five, please note that this figure has been suppressed because the statistical value is less than five. The Scottish Ambulance service has a duty, under the Data Protection Act to avoid directly or indirectly revealing any personal details. It is therefore widely understood that provision of statistics on small numbers, five or less are statistically suppressed upon disclosure.
