FOI 24-525 ROLE and PLE Incidents
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 24-525 ROLE and PLE Incidents
- Request Date
- 16 Dec 2024
- Response Date
- 10 Jan 2025
- Information Requested
1. The number of instances that that PLE (Pronunciation of Life Extinct) was recorded by the Scottish Ambulance Service in the last six years. Please provide this broken down by calendar year (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 so far) and calendar year (2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/2024 and 2024/25 so far). *please show in a table where instances were recorded as PLE and ROLE.
2. The number of instances that that ROLE (Recognition of Life Extinct) was recorded by the Scottish Ambulance Service in the last six years. Please provide this broken down by calendar year (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 so far) and calendar year (2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/2024 and 2024/25 so far) *please show in a table where instances were recorded as PLE and ROLE
3. Confirmation of whether or not the Scottish Ambulance Service has transitioned away from using PLE and ROLE as terms and instead started to use COD (Confirmation of Death) instead. 4. If SAS has changed the way it records this then please also provide all the data the new way it is recorded.
- Response
Please see the tables below detailing the number of ROLE’s and the number of PLE’s reported in 2023 until 2024 to date.
Year PLE ROLE PLE and ROLE
2019 3497 3646 2323
2020 4409 4385 2727
2021 5914 5565 3525
2022 6037 5875 3429
2023 6090 6088 3419
2024 5681 6362 3263
F/Y PLE ROLE PLE AND ROLE
2020/21 4915 4796 3017
2021/22 5891 5581 3465
2022/23 6239 6075 3529
2023/24 5912 6205 3323
2024/25* 4132 4578 2382
*1st April 2024 – 31st December 2024
Scottish Ambulance Service crews report ROLE and PLE when attending incidents where a death has occurred. This can be anything from accidental death to unexplained deaths; the crews are often called to confirm death. There has been a change in terminology within the Scottish Ambulance Service to Confirmation of Death; this is in the process of a phased-rollout. In terms of reporting we are using the former two terms ROLE and PLE, there is no current date set for the change in reporting.
Important to note when interpreting this data: The sections on the ePRF where the crews would note PLE or ROLE are not exclusive, there are instances where the crew have filled out both sections as indicated in the third column; the third column’s figures are incorporated into the first two column’s figures. The data in the columns should NOT be added together as this will not be a true representation of the number of deaths attended.
