FOI 25-414 Assaults on Ambulance Staff
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 25-414 Assaults on Ambulance Staff
- Request Date
- 23 Sep 2025
- Response Date
- 17 Oct 2025
- Information Requested
The number of recorded assaults against ambulance workers in the calendar years 2023, 2024 and 2025 to 30 June.
The number of recorded threats made against ambulance workers in the calendar years 2023, 2024 and 2025 to 30 June.
The number of recorded sexual assaults against ambulance workers in the calendar years 2023, 2024 and 2025 to 30 June.
The number of ambulance workers who were signed off work in the calendar years 2023, 2024 and 2025 to 30 June. Please provide top 5 reasons for this – for example, stress or depression.
- Response
The Service has a range of measures in place to help protect staff, known or reported areas where staff have previously faced violence or threatening behaviour are taken into consideration and communicated to attending crews. Scottish Ambulance staff are trained in managing aggression and assessing risk, enabling them to better judge when they need to wait for support from the Police, or request additional service support
Please see the table below detailing the number of assaults, verbal assaults and sexual assaults reported by Scottish Ambulance Service staff for the years requested.
Category
2023
2024
2025*
Physical Assault
188
208
86
Verbal Assault
127
166
68
Sexual Assault
7
12
0
*2025 figures true from 01/01/2025 - 24/09/2025
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.
Please see the table below detailing the total staff sickness absence for each year between 01/01/2023 - 30/06/2025.
Important Information to consider when interpreting this data
- the data counts the number of employees absent in the year. An employee is counted in a year if they had one or more absence of any length of time in that year.
- For the purposes of this request, front line employees are defined as: Paramedics, Technicians, A&E Team Leaders, Trainee Technicians.
- an employee may be counted in more than one year. For example: if employee is absent from November 2023 to February 2024, they will be counted in the figures for 2023 and 2024
- the calendar year 2025 contains information for January to June 2025 only
- the breakdown by sickness absence reason shows the number of employees absent for the reason in the year. An employee is counted in a reason and year if they had one or more absence of any length of time in that year.
- in the breakdown by sickness absence reason an employee may be counted against more than one absence reason. For example: if employee is absent on one occasion due to Gastro Problems and due to Back Problems on another occasion, they will be counted in the figures for both absence reasons.
Calendar Year
Employee Count (Absence)
2023
2,992
2024
3,134
2025*
2,368
* to 30 June only
The table below details the top 5 sickness absence reasons for each year.
Absence Reason
2023
2024
2025*
25 Gastro Problems
1,118
1,264
710
13 Cold/Influenza
804
1,110
609
10 Anxiety/Stress/Depression
600
696
420
12 Other Musculoskeletal problems
372
425
247
11 Back problems
389
408
233
* to 30 June only
