FOI 25-093 Private Ambulance Spend from 2018-2024
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 25-093 Private Ambulance Spend from 2018-2024
- Request Date
- 21 Feb 2025
- Response Date
- 14 Mar 2025
- Information Requested
I am emailing to make a request under the Freedom of Information Act for details about the use of private ambulance by the trust for both frontline 999 calls and patient transport. Please can you provide answers to the following questions:
- How much did the trust spend in each of the last seven financial years on private ambulances. Please provide full year data breakdowns for 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24 along with data for 2024/25 to the latest possible date in the current financial year.
- Please can you provide a breakdown for the figures in q1 showing how much of the total spend on private ambulance services in each financial year was for either frontline 999 ambulance care or patient transport. I would like this data in financial years with a figure for both frontline 999 care and patient transport.
- Please can you provide a list of the companies the trust uses or has used for frontline 999 ambulance work and patient transport with a financial yearly breakdown of how much each company has been paid for the last seven financial years. Please use the same yearly breakdowns as in q1 and please indicate what services each company provided.
- Please can you give me a list of companies which the trust has been using for private ambulance services (both frontline and patient transport) which have either had their contracts cancelled or which have gone out of business since 2018.
- Response
The Scottish Ambulance Service no longer has contracts with Private Ambulance providers.
1. Please see the attached sheet detailing the total spend on private ambulances from 2018-2024, information held is by accounting year.
2. The costs attributed to the British Red Cross are not held in a way that can be broken down into Emergency or Patient Transport categories. It is for this reason we have applied Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 as information not held.
It is important to note
The British Red Cross were contracted to undertake Patient Transport Services and may only attend an emergency incident in one of the following capacities:
- As a patient transport crew where a patient has been assessed by a clinician as suitable for transport to hospital by this type of resource. These incidents would be attended under normal driving conditions (i.e. no lights and sirens).
- As a first responder similar to the role of our Community First Responder scheme. Working in this capacity the Red Cross crew will be backed up by a Scottish Ambulance Service crew. These incidents would be attended by red cross under normal driving conditions (i.e. no lights and sirens).
3. The Scottish Ambulance Service has only ever held contracts with The British Red Cross.
4. Please see the table in Q1 for the companies used.
- Response Documents
