FOI 26-246 Prison Incidents
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 26-246 Prison Incidents
- Request Date
- 28 May 2026
- Response Date
- 18 Jun 2026
- Information Requested
I would like to request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, relating to ambulance callouts to HM Prison Service establishments within your service area. For the period from1 January 2023 up to and including the most recent complete month at the time of response please provide:
- The total number of ambulance callouts to HM Prison Service establishments.
- For each callout, or in aggregate if individual records cannot be provided:
- The response category assigned to the call (e.g. Category 1, 2, 3, or 4 under the Ambulance Response Programme)
-The response time from call receipt to arrival on scene.
-If it is not possible to identify callouts to prison establishments specifically, please provide the data filtered by the postcodes of HM Prison Service establishments within your service area.
A list of relevant postcodes can be provided on request. If providing individual call records would exceed the cost limit, I would be grateful for the following aggregated figures instead: - Total number of callouts per year to HM Prison Service establishments - Breakdown of callouts to HM Prison Service establishments by response category per year - Mean and median response times per response category per year If any part of my request is too broad or unclear, I would appreciate your guidance on how to refine it. I am looking forward to your response within the statutory 20 working days and would be grateful for an acknowledgement of receipt
- Response
Important Information to consider when interpreting this data
The Scottish Ambulance Service does not record incidents using a specific identifier for HM Prison Service establishments.
In order to provide information within scope of your request we have therefore undertaken a search using the list of postcodes provided to us as set out below:
KA1 5AA, DG2 9AX, FK9 5NU, FK10 3AD, FK2 0AB, AB42 2YY, G33 2QX, PA16 9AJ, G64 2QB, IV2 3HH, EH55 8QF, ML7 4LE, EH11 3LN, DD2 5HL, PH2 8AT, DD3 7TF and G20 9AJ
All data provided is based on incident postcode only. This means incidents are identified solely where the recorded incident postcode matches one of the postcodes above. As a result, not all incidents included will necessarily relate to prison establishments; incidents may instead relate to other properties, streets, or locations within the same postcode area.
Please see the attached sheet detailing the total number of emergency incidents attended in the postcode areas provided broken down by year, postcode and clinical response category. For each clinical response category we have provided the average, median1, 90th percentile2 response time information.
The response times show total time and do not factor in possible upgrading or downgrading that may occur depending on the patient condition. For example, a call may start out as a yellow call, subsequently be upgraded to a purple call some time later, but only the total time from the first call received is shown. The starting point is always set for the colour category first determined, not the final colour category assigned. Where delays occur, clinical advisors maintain contact with the patient, checking their condition on an ongoing basis, and upgrading when appropriate.
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
