FOI 26-292 Red Flagged Addresses and Staff Assaults
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 26-292 Red Flagged Addresses and Staff Assaults
- Request Date
- 30 Jun 2026
- Response Date
- 22 Jul 2026
- Information Requested
- As of the 1st January 2026 (to date):
- How many addresses are marked as a risk for ambulance crews to attend due to the potential for physical or verbal abuse?
- How many of these addresses are marked as unsafe for ambulances to attend without a police escort?
- For each of the following calendar years 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021, how many physical assaults on ambulance staff have been recorded?
- As of the 1st April 2026 - how many body worn videos have now been issued to employees at your trust, to assist with staff protection when they are responding to ambulance call outs to the public?
- How much has the trust spent on purchasing body worn videos?
- Between 2020/21 and 2025/26 – how many ambulances have been fitted with external cameras and what has been the cost of the roll out?
- Between 2020/21 and 2025/26 – how much has the trust spent on conflict resolution or de-escalation training for staff, to help them manage violent or abusive situations?
- Response
Q1a - The Scottish Ambulance Service currently hold 4701 locations marked as a risk for physical or verbal abuse.
Q1b – Of the locations identified above, there are 1566 locations where crews are advised to liaise with Police Scotland for attendance.
Q2 - Please see the figures below; these figures reflect physical assaults recorded by the Scottish Ambulance Service during the specified calendar years. They do not include incidents involving verbal abuse, threats or other forms of violence and aggression where no physical assault occurred.
Calendar Year
Physical assaults recorded
2025
176
2024
210
2023
187
2022
151
2021
155
Q3 – The Scottish Ambulance Service does not utilise Body Worn Cameras, it is for this reason there have been zero Body Worn Cameras issued to employees as of 1st April 2026.
Q4 – As the Body Worn Cameras are not utilised by SAS there has been zero spend in purchasing them.
Q5 – The Scottish Ambulance Service uses the term ambulance to refer to any vehicle within the ambulance fleet. Based on this definition, the number of vehicles fitted with external camera systems during the period requested is shown below:
Financial Year
Number of ambulances fitted with external cameras
2020/21
130
2021/22
126
2022/23
125
2023/24
136
2024/25
103
2025/26
130
Total
750
The Scottish Ambulance Service does not hold a recorded cost specifically for the installation of external cameras. Camera systems are installed as part of the ambulance conversion process and the associated costs are not recorded separately from wider vehicle conversion costs. It is for this reason we have applied section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002 to this section of your request as information not held.
Q6 - Conflict resolution, de-escalation and violence and aggression training are delivered in-house by Scottish Ambulance Service training teams as part of wider learning and development and staff protection arrangements. While the Service holds information relating to individual training programmes, it does not hold a centrally recorded total expenditure figure covering all costs associated with the delivery of this training for the period requested.
To provide a response would require the Scottish Ambulance Service to create new information by identifying, extracting and analysing information from multiple sources and systems. This would require the application of complex skill and judgement to determine and calculate costs including, but not limited to:
- Staff pay bands and salary costs for time spent undertaking training;
- Trainer and support staff costs;
- Digital learning development and maintenance costs;
- Equipment and training resource costs;
- Estates and venue costs;
- Administrative and programme support costs;
- Backfill and abstraction costs associated with releasing operational staff for training; and
- Ongoing refresher training requirements and associated costs.
The Service does not hold a recorded total of these costs and FOISA does not require public authorities to create new information in order to respond to a request.
Accordingly, in terms of section 17(1) of FOISA, the Scottish Ambulance Service does not hold the information requested.
By way of assistance, the Service has historically delivered an online Violence and Aggression De-escalation/Conflict Management module and currently delivers a face-to-face Prevention and Management of Violence and Aggression (PMVA) training programme. Both programmes are delivered in-house by the Scottish Ambulance Service, however a consolidated expenditure figure for the period requested is not held.
