FOI 26-043 Malicious Calls
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 26-043 Malicious Calls
- Request Date
- 22 Jan 2026
- Response Date
- 29 Jan 2026
- Information Requested
I would be grateful if you could comply with the following request: For every calendar year since 2014, please can you provide me with the following:
- The number of emergency incidents respondedto;
- The number of calls stopped with reason ‘Malicious Call’;
- The length of time spent on calls stopped with reason ‘Malicious Call’.
Please can you also clarify the following: In relation to a previous FOI shared with me by colleagues (FOI 25-491), your response indicated that the number of malicious calls received by the service in 2020 was 111, and that 3,529 minutes was the total number of mins until the malicious call was stopped. However, in relation to a more recent FOI shared with me by colleagues (FOI 25-011), your response indicated that the number of malicious calls received by the service in 2020 was 653, and that 19916 mins was the total number of mins until the malicious call was stopped. Please can you therefore advise which figures are the correct figures for 2020?
- Response
Q1, Q2 &Q3
Please see the table below detailing the information requested for each year, including the total number of calls received, the total number of incidents attended, the total number of calls with a stop reason of ‘malicious, the average length of time on until the malicious call was stopped and the total time until the malicious call was stopped.
Call Started Calendar Year
Total Incident Count
Total Attended Incidents
Total Call Count with stop reason of Malicious
Average Minutes to stop
Total sum of Minutes to Stop
2020
623,261
503,247
100
32
3213
2021
689,132
524,457
490
39
19282
2022
694,047
520,167
551
32
18031
2023
684,880
530,897
620
35
22119
2024
728,352
554,508
503
35
17720
2025
732,876
541,748
414
51
21188
2026
51,756
36,714
18
51
927
Please note caution when interpreting this data
The figures provided for 2020 and 2026 are only partial year figures and not full year figures.
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.
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.
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.
The two FOI responses used different data sources, which is why the numbers for 2020 were not the same. One response used data taken directly from the C3 system, but we have since learned that this system deletes older records, so it does not hold complete information for 2020. The other response used data from the C3 Data Warehouse, which keeps historical records and does not delete anything. This source gives the more accurate figure of 653 malicious calls in 2020.
All totals may be subject to change slightly over time if older incidents are later corrected or added into the system.
