FOI 26-154 Drug Incidents at Construction Sites

Freedom of Information Request

Reference
FOI 26-154 Drug Incidents at Construction Sites
Request Date
18 Mar 2026
Response Date
19 Mar 2026
Information Requested

NALOXONE - Drug Overdose / Poisoning Dear Freedom of Information Team, I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I am seeking information relating to ambulance responses to suspected drug overdoses at construction sites within your service area. Time period requested: 1 January 2022 – present (or the most recent date available) If possible, could you please provide anonymised data relating to ambulance incidents where either: 

  • Naloxone was administered by ambulance clinicians, or
  • The clinical impression / incident codingindicated suspected drug overdose or poisoning.  

 

For the incidents meeting the above criteria, I request the following fields where they are available:  

  • Incident date (month and year is sufficient if exact dates cannot be released) 
  • Incident location type / premises classification 
  • Postcode district (e.g. SW1, M15) or other non-identifiable location indicator 
  • Whether naloxone was administered (Yes / No) 
  • Dispatch code or chief complaint category 
  • Final clinical impression category 
  • Patient outcome (e.g. treated on scene, transported to hospital) 

 

If it is possible to filter incidents where the location type was recorded as construction site, building site, industrial site, or similar categories, I would be grateful if those incidents could be identified.  

 

If the above cannot be provided as a dataset, aggregated figures would also be acceptable, for example:  

  • Total number of ambulance incidents where naloxone was administered 
  • Number of those incidents where the location type was recorded as construction site, industrial site, or building site I confirm that I am notseekingany personal or identifiable patient information.  

 

Even though you do not record location types; are the coordinates provided in the call to the ambulance drivers, which could identify the type of location? 

Response

While the Scottish Ambulance Service can report on incidents involving suspected overdose/poisoning and on the administration of naloxone, our incident systems do not hold location information in a way that allows us to reliably identify or report incidents by “location type”, such as whether an incident occurred at a construction site, building site or industrial site. 

 

In relation to your question about whether geographic coordinates or address information could be used to identify the type of location: 

 

While ambulance crews receive location information (such as an address or map reference) to enable them to attend an incident, the Scottish Ambulance Service does not hold information in a way that allows incidents to be reliably classified by “location type”, such as whether an incident occurred at a construction site, building site or industrial premises. 

 

In addition, construction sites are, by their nature, temporary and change over time. A location that is a construction site during one week may not be classed as such the following week. We do not hold historical records that define when a specific address was, or was not, an active construction site. 

 

Ambulance incidents may be recorded at addresses adjacent to, near, or outside a construction site (for example, a nearby street, access road or neighbouring property). From the information we hold, it would not be possible to determine whether such incidents were attributable to activity at a construction site rather than the surrounding area. 

 

Although address or coordinate data may be held for operational purposes, we do not hold a dataset, reference table or mapping that links those locations to construction sites or other workplace categories. Determining this would require interpretation, external datasets, or additional analysis, which would amount to creating new information rather than providing information we hold for the purposes of FOISA. 

 

For these reasons, we are unable to accurately identify, or report incidents as having occurred at construction sites, even where address or coordinate information exists.  It is for this reason we have applied section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002, as information not held. 

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