FOI 25-505 Sexual Assault Incidents
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 25-505 Sexual Assault Incidents
- Request Date
- 04 Nov 2025
- Response Date
- 10 Nov 2025
- Information Requested
- The number of reported sex abuse incidents (physical and verbal) on staff by patients in 2022, 2023, 2024 and the first ten months of 2025. Can the data be categorised in calendar year please.
- From the numbers given in Q1, can you specify how many of those were physical sex assaults for each year please. Can the data be categorised in calendar years please.
- The number of staff who required sick leave following a reported incident of sex abuse from a patient in 2022, 2023, 2024 and the first ten months of 2025. Can the data be categorised in calendar years please.
- 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 Service 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 attached sheet detailing the number of sexual assaults perpetrated by a patient on a Scottish Ambulance Service member of staff.
2022
2023
2024
2025
Sexual Assault
10
7
12
12
Sexual Harassment
0
0
<5
5
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.
We do not hold the information in a way that allows us to report on which of these incidents resulted in staff requiring sick leave or medical treatment. It is for this reason I have applied Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002; Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) does not hold the information that you have requested.
