In this section: Public services
Scottish Ambulance Service: funding, staff and response times
Last updated . Figures refresh every night. How each figure is worked out.
£479m for Scottish Ambulance Service in 2024-25, £86.31 per resident, +3.0% on a year earlier after inflation.
Figure as of unknown date. Source: Scottish Ambulance Service.
Key figures
- £479m2024-25, cash +7.2% on a year earlier
- £86.31Per resident, 2024-25
- 5,480 FTEStaff (full-time equivalent), 2024-25 Scotland: 5,480 FTE
- 9.3 minutesRed: median response (Scotland), 2026-09-14 Scotland: 9.3 minutes
- 52.8 minutesMedian turnaround at hospital (Scotland), 2026-09-14 Scotland: 52.8 minutes
Source: Scottish Ambulance Service.
Over time: cash, real terms and per resident
Real terms use HM Treasury’s GDP deflator, 2025-26 prices. Breaks in the series: 2017-18: England’s response categories 1 to 4 and their standards (the Ambulance Response Programme) began in 2017; the NHS England series here starts with them. Earlier red/green figures are not comparable. 2022-23: Scotland: response times from April 2022 are provisional while the Scottish Ambulance Service revises its definition. 2023-24: England: handover times are in AmbSYS from October 2023, replacing the winter situation reports. 2025-26: Wales: a new clinical response model from July 2025 (purple, red, orange, yellow, green); the old red 8-minute measure ends in June 2025 and the two are not comparable. 2026-27: England: integrated care boards merged in April 2026; the trust areas are drawn on the new boards. From August 2026 NHS England moved some ambulance data to the Ambulance Data Set, and the latest month is revised the month after.
The numbers behind this chart
| Year | Real terms (2025-26 prices) | Cash |
|---|---|---|
2023-24Details for 2023-24 | £480.9m | £446.7m |
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2024-25Details for 2024-25 | £495.2m | £478.7m |
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Figure as of unknown date. Source: Scottish Ambulance Service.
Per resident divides by ONS mid-year population estimates.
The numbers behind this chart
| Year | Per resident, 2025-26 prices | Per resident, cash |
|---|---|---|
2023-24Details for 2023-24 | £87 | £81 |
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2024-25Details for 2024-25 | £89 | £86 |
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Figure as of unknown date. Source: Scottish Ambulance Service.
Source: Scottish Ambulance Service, Scottish Ambulance Service Board, Annual Report and Accounts 2024-25.
Where it sits, and what is below it
- UK total
- Nation
- Department or service body (this level)
- Local body not published
- Spending category
- Line or transaction not published
Scottish Ambulance Service
Gross expenditure for the year (consolidated statement of comprehensive net expenditure), before operating income; employee expenditure. Gross expenditure, so it is on the same footing as the operating expenses of the other services. Net expenditure after £17.8m of operating income was £460.9m (2023-24: £434.6m). Includes the air ambulance service and patient transport.
£479m in 2024-25 (cash); £495m in 2025-26 prices; £86.31 per resident; +7.2% on a year earlier in cash, +3.0% in real terms.
| Spending category | Cash, 2024-25 | Real terms (2025-26 prices) | Per resident | Real change on a year earlier | Source | Below this |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
StaffDetails for Staff | £371m | £384m | £66.90 | +2.7% | Scottish Ambulance Service | Line or transaction not published: The annual accounts break spending down no further than staff and other costs in a form that is comparable year to year, so no finer lines are shown. |
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Everything else (supplies, vehicles, premises, depreciation and other costs)Details for Everything else (supplies, vehicles, premises, depreciation and other costs) | £108m | £111m | £19.41 | +4.0% | Scottish Ambulance Service | Line or transaction not published: The annual accounts break spending down no further than staff and other costs in a form that is comparable year to year, so no finer lines are shown. |
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Cash is as published. Real terms are in 2025-26 prices, using HM Treasury’s GDP deflator. Per resident divides by ONS mid-year population for the area the body serves. Changes compare the same body in consecutive years.
What is recorded alongside the money
These figures are published beside the funding, not as its result. Demand, geography, recording practice and many other things differ between areas and change over time; none of these charts shows cause and effect.
| Measure | Scottish Ambulance Service | Scotland | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
Staff (full-time equivalent)Details for Staff (full-time equivalent) | 5,480 FTE | 5,480 FTE | 2024-25 |
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Red: median response (Scotland)Details for Red: median response (Scotland) | 9.3 minutes | 9.3 minutes | 2026-09-14 |
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Median turnaround at hospital (Scotland)Details for Median turnaround at hospital (Scotland) | 52.8 minutes | 52.8 minutes | 2026-09-14 |
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All staff employed by the trust or service, full-time equivalent, as each nation’s workforce statistics count them (England and Wales: NHS staff statistics; Northern Ireland: HSC workforce statistics; Scotland: the service’s accounts). Counts include NHS 111 and patient transport staff where the service runs them, so they are not like-for-like between nations.
The numbers behind this chart
| Year | Scottish Ambulance Service | Scotland |
|---|---|---|
2023-24Details for 2023-24 | 5,518 | 5,518 |
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2024-25Details for 2024-25 | 5,480 | 5,480 |
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Figure as of unknown date. Source: Scottish Ambulance Service.
Median response time for red incidents attended, weekly.
The numbers behind this chart
| Year | Scottish Ambulance Service | Scotland |
|---|---|---|
2026-08-24Details for 2026-08-24 | 9.4 | 9.4 |
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2026-08-31Details for 2026-08-31 | 9.7 | 9.7 |
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2026-09-07Details for 2026-09-07 | 9.5 | 9.5 |
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2026-09-14Details for 2026-09-14 | 9.3 | 9.3 |
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Figure as of 23 September 2026. Source: Scottish Ambulance Service.
Median time a crew spends at hospital after conveying a patient, from arrival until clear, at hospitals with an A&E; weekly. It includes handover and getting the vehicle ready again, so it is longer than a handover time.
The numbers behind this chart
| Year | Scottish Ambulance Service | Scotland |
|---|---|---|
2026-08-24Details for 2026-08-24 | 53.1 | 53.1 |
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2026-08-31Details for 2026-08-31 | 51.5 | 51.5 |
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2026-09-07Details for 2026-09-07 | 53.5 | 53.5 |
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2026-09-14Details for 2026-09-14 | 52.8 | 52.8 |
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Figure as of 23 September 2026. Source: Scottish Ambulance Service.
What these figures do and don't show
- Each nation measures response times its own way. England uses categories 1 to 4 with national standards; Wales moved to a new model in July 2025, which breaks its series; Scotland and Northern Ireland publish their own measures. Times are compared within a nation, never across.
- No Treasury figure for ambulances. HM Treasury counts ambulance services inside medical services, so the UK figure here is the sum of the services’ own accounts, for years all of them have.
- Handover delays are hospital as well as ambulance. Time lost at hospital handover depends on the hospital’s capacity as much as on the ambulance service.
- Vehicle numbers are not published as official statistics for any nation.
- Nothing here shows cause and effect.
Where this sits: Ambulance services, United Kingdom → Scotland → Scottish Ambulance Service. Figures from data/services/ambulance.json, generated 29 September 2026.
Use this data
The figures belong to the bodies that published them and are used under their terms, listed in Sources for this page; most are Crown copyright under the Open Government Licence. Only our own words, analysis, charts and derived calculations are ours, published under CC BY 4.0: reuse them, including commercially, if you credit Tekstak Ltd and link back to this page.
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Sources for this page
| Source | Publisher | Figures as of | Updated | Licence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scottish Ambulance Service Board, Annual Report and Accounts 2024-25 | Scottish Ambulance Service | — | annual | Open Government Licence v3.0 |
| Unscheduled care operational statistics, weekly (published 2026-09-23) | Scottish Ambulance Service | 23 September 2026 | annual | Open Government Licence v3.0 |
Each source's figures are used under the licence shown. Our own words, analysis, charts and derived calculations are ours, under CC BY 4.0.