FOI 25-485 Single-Crewed Shifts
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 25-485 Single-Crewed Shifts
- Request Date
- 28 Oct 2025
- Response Date
- 21 Nov 2025
- Information Requested
I am looking for information regarding how many ambulances have been single-crewed in each of the following years: 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 (most recent). More specifically, I would like the total number of ambulances that were single-crewed in each year, and not simply percentages.
Can I also have a breakdown of the data by location?
- Response
The Scottish Ambulance Service does not have the dataset to report on single-crewed ambulances; this is because there could be more than one crew assigned to an ambulance in any one day and crew members can sign-off during shifts for many reasons. It is for this reason we have applied section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002 as information not held.
Please see the attached sheet detailing single crewed shifts from 01/01/2019 - 31/10/2025, this has been
broken down into region. It is important to note that this information is for single crewed shifts and NOT number of ambulances.
The Scottish Ambulance Service does not routinely roster staff to be on their own in a double crewed
vehicle. Every effort is made to double crew shifts, however there are occasions when some shifts will be
single-crewed due to short notice, unplanned staff absence where additional staffing cannot be arranged.
It is important to note that on these call-outs single crew staff members are tasked appropriately and backed up as necessary.
- Response Documents
