FOI 26-198 Technician and Paramedic Recruitment
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 26-198 Technician and Paramedic Recruitment
- Request Date
- 21 Apr 2026
- Response Date
- 18 May 2026
- Information Requested
- Please could you provide information on the current numbers of ambulance technicians and paramedics within the Scottish Ambulance Service.
- Could you provide information on the number of ambulance technicians and paramedics recruited to the Scottish Ambulance Service in the last year.
- Could you also provide information on how many open roles there were for newly qualified paramedics in 2024 and 2025.
- Finally, could you provide information about the number of ambulance technicians who have successfully completed training to transition to paramedics in the last year, 5 years and 10 years.
- Response
Q1 – As of 13/05/2026 there are 1415 Ambulance Technicians and 2026 Paramedics.
Q2 - The recruitment figures below include a range of entry routes including internal transitions and external appointments.
- Ambulance Technicians:22
- Ambulance Paramedics: 281
Q3 - The Scottish Ambulance Service does not hold a single, reportable dataset that records the total number of “open roles” specifically for newly qualified paramedics by calendar year.
While vacancy and recruitment activity is recorded, identifying and retrospectively reporting the number of open roles for newly qualified paramedics for the years 2024 and 2025 would require the creation of new information by collating multiple sources. FOISA does not require public authorities to create new information in order to respond to a request. It is for this reason we have applied section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002 as information not held.
Q4 - The Scottish Ambulance Service holds recorded information on ambulance technicians who have successfully completed training to transition to paramedic roles. The figures are as follows:
- Last year: 9
- Last 5 years: 56
- Last 10 years: 192
These figures relate to technicians who have successfully completed the required training and transitioned to paramedic roles during the specified time periods.
