FOI 26-333 NHS Forth Valley Health Board Taxi Incidents
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 26-333 NHS Forth Valley Health Board Taxi Incidents
- Request Date
- 24 Jul 2026
- Response Date
- 24 Aug 2026
- Information Requested
- The amount of money that has been spent on taxis to transport patients in the NHS Forth Valley health board area, broken down by the last five financial years (2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24, 2024/25 and 2025/26)
Please provide a total amount for each year.
2. The number of taxi journeys that have been ordered and paid for in the NHS Forth Valley health board area for patients, broken down by the last five financial years (2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24, 2024/25 and 2025/26).
Please provide a total for each year.
3. If possible please provide the average number of taxis that are ordered and paid for in a month in the NHS Forth Valley area.
4. For clarity, please list all the specific circumstances in which a taxi would be ordered for a patient.
For example, taking them to hospital, to home from hospital etc.
- The amount of money that has been spent on taxis to transport patients in the NHS Forth Valley health board area, broken down by the last five financial years (2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24, 2024/25 and 2025/26)
- Response
The Scottish Ambulance Service will always dispatch an ambulance for patients who require an ambulance intervention and/or monitoring on route to hospital.
Taxis are only arranged after clinical assessment through our Integrated Clinical Hub or clinicians at scene, who have identified that a patient requires further assessment at hospital, it is safe and appropriate for the patient to travel by this method and not necessary for an emergency ambulance to transport them to hospital.
Since January 2024, use of taxis to convey patients to hospital accounted to 0.7% of all incidents managed by the Scottish Ambulance Service.
- The amount of money that has been spent on taxis to transport patients in the NHS Forth Valley health board area, broken down by the last fivefinancial years(2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24, 2024/25 and 2025/26). Please provide a total amount for each year.
Please see the attached sheet with detailing the yearly financial spend on taxi journeys in the Forth Valley area for the years requested. This has been identified by the taxi firms that are contracted in the Forth Valley area.
Financial Year
Expenditure
2021/22
£0
2022/23
£1,150
2023/24
£6,605
2024/25
£4,237
2025/26
- The number of taxi journeys that have been ordered and paid for in the NHS Forth Valley health board area for patients, broken down by the last fivefinancial years(2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24, 2024/25 and 2025/26). Please provide a total for each year.
The Scottish Ambulance Service cannot determine how many taxi's were 'ordered and paid for' for each financial year. This would require complex skill and judgement to determine the calls and financial attribution to each call which is not how the information is held. It is for this reason we have applied section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002 as information not held.
We can identify the number of times a taxi has been asked to attend an incident in each financial year, which has been provided on the attached sheet
Please note caution when interpreting this data
As detailed on the ‘Journey Type’ tab on the spreadsheet, there are occasions where a taxi has been organised, but no journey has been completed with a patient.
- Ifpossibleplease provide the average number of taxis that are ordered and paid for in a month in the NHS Forth Valley area.
Please see the ‘Monthly Average’ tab on the attached sheet detailing the overall monthly average for each financial year. The numbers are too small to provide an average taxi usage on a month-by-month basis.
In accordance with statistical disclosure control principles, where the number of incidents is fewer than five but greater that zero, figures have been suppressed and shown as "<5". This is because disclosure of very small numbers may increase the risk of individuals being identified when combined with other information that may be available.
Where suppression has been applied, the exact figure is exempt from disclosure under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information), as disclosure could lead to the identification of individuals and would therefore contravene the data protection principles.
- For clarity, please list all the specific circumstances in which a taxi would be ordered for a patient. orexample, taking them to hospital, to home from hospital etc
Please see the ‘Journey Type’ tab on the attached sheet detailing the exact circumstances recorded for which a taxi was used for the incidents identified.
- Response Documents
