FOI 25-216 BBQ Related Injuries
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 25-216 BBQ Related Injuries
- Request Date
- 21 May 2025
- Response Date
- 23 May 2025
- Information Requested
I would like to request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 relating to incidents involving barbecues (BBQs):
Time Period: January 2022 to the most recent available month in 2025
Breakdown: Ideally by month and by location (city/town or regional)
1. The number of ambulance call-outs due to BBQ-related injuries.
2. Of those, how many involved:
- Burns or fire-related injuries
- Lacerations or wounds caused during BBQs
- Food poisoning attributed to BBQs
- Suspected carbon monoxide poisoning linked to BBQs- Response
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. I have concluded that, in the case of data about injuries sustained from ‘BBQs’, we are unable to produce this information without complex skill and judgement.
We do not have the dataset to report on ‘BBQ’ related incidents and producing this information would involve us reviewing each incident from January 2022 until present day to see if a crew has noted BBQ. It is for this reason that we have applied the exemption Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002 as information not held.
