FOI 26-010 Fitness Testing Equality

Freedom of Information Request

Reference
FOI 26-010 Fitness Testing Equality
Request Date
05 Jan 2026
Response Date
26 Jan 2026
Information Requested

Dear Freedom of Information Officer, I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. This request relates solely to the role-specific fitness test used by the Scottish Ambulance Service for Paramedic recruitment, particularly the grip strength test and the step test involving stepping on and off a box while carrying progressively heavier weights. It seeks aggregated demographic and policy information only and does not request personal or identifiable data. This request is made in the context of the Scottish Ambulance Service’s duties under the Equality Act 2010, in compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty and the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012, which require public authorities to gather, use, and publish equality information to assess the impact of their policies and practices.  

I request the following information:  

 

Q1 - Role-specific fitness test participation and outcomes  

For each of the last three completed financial years, the TOTAL number of candidates who undertook the role-specific fitness test as part of the paramedic recruitment process.  

For each of the same years, the number of candidates who PASSED and FAILED the test. 

Please provide raw numbers and percentages, broken down by gender (male and female).  

Where held, the same pass and fail data broken down by ethnicity using the equality monitoring categories applied by the Scottish Ambulance Service.  

 

Q2 - Equality assessment and policy basis:  

  1. A copy of the Equality Impact Assessment(s) supporting the use of the role-specific fitness test, addressing each component of the test as carried out in practice, including grip strength and step test.  
  1. A copy of the policy, standard operating procedure, or guidance requiring paramedic candidates to complete a role-specific fitness test prior to employment.  
  1. A copy of any policy or guidance stating whether paramedics are required (or not required) to undertake annual or periodic fitness testing following appointment.  
  1. Development and evidential basis of the fitness test Documents, reports, research, or internal papers used in the creation and validation of the role-specific fitness test, including scientific, occupational health, ergonomic, or evidential material used to justify each exercise.  
  1. Records explaining how the current exercises and performance thresholds were selected, including any physical task analysis or assessment of operational relevance.  
  1. Any analysis, review, or discussion considering the fact that the same or similar role-specific fitness test is not used universally across UK ambulance services.  

 

Monitoring of differential outcomes and adverse impact:  

  1. Copies of any monitoring reports, dashboards, reviews, or analyses examining differential pass or fail rates for the role-specific fitness test by gender or ethnicity, including any assessment of disproportionate or adverse impact produced in line with equality monitoring duties.  
  1. Records of decisions, meeting minutes, or correspondence where equality considerations, mitigations, amendments, or retention of the role-specific fitness test were discussed, including decisions where no change was made following such consideration. 

 

Support for underrepresented groups:  

Details of any support, preparation, training, or reasonable adjustment offered to candidates from underrepresented groups prior to undertaking the role-specific fitness test, including initiatives focused on gender or ethnicity.  

 

Workforce demographics for comparison:  

For each of the last five completed financial years, the demographic breakdown of the Scottish Ambulance Service workforce for Paramedics and Ambulance Technicians, aggregated by gender and ethnicity as held for equality monitoring and reporting purposes.  

Response

 Q1 - Under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), public authorities are required to provide access to recorded information that is held at the time of the request. FOISA does not require an authority to create new information, carry out analysis it does not already hold, or generate records that do not exist. If the information requested is not held in a recorded form, the authority must issue a notice under Section 17 of FOISA confirming that the information is not held. 

 

The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) cannot provide pass/fail outcomes for the role‑specific fitness test, including breakdowns by gender or ethnicity, because its recruitment systems do not report fitness‑test outcomes. Producing this information would require a manual review of individual records and is therefore considered to exceed the cost limit under Section 12(1) of FOISA. Equality monitoring data collected during recruitment is held confidentially for overall statistical purposes and is not held in a form that can be linked to individual fitness‑test results; accordingly, the requested breakdowns by sex or ethnicity are not held.  It is for this reason the Scottish Ambulance Service have applied section 17 of FOISA, as information not held. 

 

Q2 - Equality assessment and policy basis:  

  1. A copy of the Equality Impact Assessment(s) supporting the use of the role-specific fitness test, addressing each component of the test as carried out in practice, including grip strength and step test.  

We have applied section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002 to an Equality Impact Assessment for fitness testing, this applies where the information isn’t held.  The Scottish Ambulance Service does not hold a role-specific fitness test EQIA. 

 

  1. A copy of the policy, standard operating procedure, or guidance requiring paramedic candidates to complete a role-specific fitness test prior to employment.  

Please see the attached Appendix A document which details the background of the Scottish Ambulance Service fitness testing and the reasoning for requirement.   

 

  1. A copy of any policy or guidance stating whether paramedics are required (or not required) to undertake annual or periodic fitness testing following appointment.  

We have applied section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002 to any guidance or policy that outlines periodic fitness testing, this applies where the information isn’t held.  The Scottish Ambulance Service does not require period fitness testing post-recruitment. 

 

 

  1. Development and evidential basis of the fitness test Documents, reports, research, or internal papers used in the creation and validation of the role-specific fitness test, including scientific, occupational health, ergonomic, or evidential material used to justify each exercise.  

We have applied section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002 to any evidence used to create/validate the fitness testing, this applies where the information isn’t held.   

Appendix A details the background and formation of the fitness testing as it currently stands. 

 

  1. Records explaining how the current exercises and performance thresholds were selected, including any physical task analysis or assessment of operational relevance.  

Appendix A details the reasoning behind the fitness testing and the relevance of the current thresholds. 

 

  1. Any analysis, review, or discussion considering the fact that the same or similar role-specific fitness test is not used universally across UK ambulance services. 

We have applied section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002 to any analysis, review or discussion surrounding the use of the fitness test requirements of other Ambulance Service trusts, this applies where the information isn’t held.   

 

Monitoring of differential outcomes and adverse impact:  

  1. Copies of any monitoring reports, dashboards, reviews, or analyses examining differential pass or fail rates for the role-specific fitness test by gender or ethnicity, including any assessment of disproportionate or adverse impact produced in line with equality monitoring duties.  

We have applied section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002 to monitoring reports, dashboards, reviews or analysis of pass/fail rates by protected characteristics, this applies where the information isn’t held.  Equality monitoring data collected during recruitment is held confidentially for overall statistical purposes and is not held in a form that can be linked to individual fitness‑test results. 

 

  1. Records of decisions, meeting minutes, or correspondence where equality considerations, mitigations, amendments, or retention of the role-specific fitness test were discussed, including decisions where no change was made following such consideration. 

We have applied section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002 to the information requested; this applies where the information isn’t held.  Decisions regarding the fitness testing were made in the 1990’s with no records of decisions, meeting minutes etc still held within the Scottish Ambulance Service.  There have been no changes to the fitness texting since 2020; We are also unable to conduct an indiscriminate, blanket search of historic email mailboxes since the inception of the test, it is for this reason we have applied section 12 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002 as it would exceed the cost of compliance. 

 

Support for underrepresented groups:  

Details of any support, preparation, training, or reasonable adjustment offered to candidates from underrepresented groups prior to undertaking the role-specific fitness test, including initiatives focused on gender or ethnicity. 

In recent years, additional support has been offered on a general basis to NQP cohorts rather than targeted at specific demographic groups; no fitness‑test processes have targeted ethnic groups. Reasonable adjustments are considered for candidates with relevant health needs. 

Published recruitment material confirms reasonable adjustments are available for applicants with disabilities throughout selection and into employment. Technician Information Pack – Applicants with disabilities & adjustments 

 

Workforce demographics for comparison:  

For each of the last five completed financial years, the demographic breakdown of the Scottish Ambulance Service workforce for Paramedics and Ambulance Technicians, aggregated by gender and ethnicity as held for equality monitoring and reporting purposes 

Please see attached an excel spreadsheet detailing the breakdown above.  The figures are total for Paramedic and Technician.  Each year has been detailed on a separate tab of the spreadsheet. 

 

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. 

Response Documents

Para & Tech By Ethnicity & Gender (1) (XLSX | 14KB)

Appendix A Current Physical Assessment (2) (1) (PDF | 122KB)

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