FOI 25-491 Malicious Calls
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 25-491 Malicious Calls
- Request Date
- 29 Oct 2025
- Response Date
- 12 Nov 2025
- Information Requested
For each calendar year since 2014, please provide 1. The number of emergency incidents responded to. 2. The number of calls stopped with reason “Malicious Call” 3. The length of time spent on calls stopped with reason “Malicious Call”
- Response
Please see the table below detailing the total number of emergency calls received and responded to for 01/01/2020-29/10/2025.
Call Started Calendar Year
Incident Count
Attended Incidents
2020
623,261
503,247
2021
689,132
524,457
2022
694,047
520,167
2023
684,880
530,897
2024
728,352
554,508
2025
602,692
450,675
The figures below had a call stop reason of ‘Malicious Calls’. This categorisation may include patients who have mental health issues which are causing them to call the Scottish Ambulance Service for non-emergency reasons.
Year
Avg mins until call stopped as 1518 Malicious Call
Sum mins until call stopped as 1518 Malicious Call
Number of
calls
CALL STOPPED Reason
2020
31
3529
111
Malicious Call
2021
39
19282
490
Malicious Call
2022
32
18031
551
Malicious Call
2023
35
22119
620
Malicious Call
2024
35
17720
503
Malicious Call
2025
45
15759
348
Malicious Call
The Scottish Ambulance can only provide the time spent handling the call. We do not record the total time spent by the despatcher, supervisor, crew (crews should there be multiple resources) or the subsequent time reviewing the calls, time spent investigating and potentially prosecuting persistent offenders. It is for this reason we have applied section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002 to the ‘wasted time’ section of your request.
Please Note: Following a search of our records, I can confirm that we do not hold the requested information for the period prior to 2020. This is because the system used to record call stop reasons only retains data for a limited period, and therefore does not contain information from before 2020.
In accordance with Section 17 of FOISA, we are required to notify you when information is not held. This response serves as formal notice under Section 17.
