FOI 26-406 Technician and ACA Recruitment
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 26-406 Technician and ACA Recruitment
- Request Date
- 07 Sep 2026
- Response Date
- 05 Oct 2026
- Information Requested
- In your Ambulance Technician (AT) Information Pack dated October 2017 you state that only around 10% of applicants are selected and that around half of applicants are selected out at shortlisting. Can you please advise if that is still the case currently?
- If the percentages have changed please provide updated percentages for selected overall and selected out at shortlisting.
- Can you please advise the same for ambulance care assistants (ACAs), what percentage of total applicants are selected and how many are selected out at shortlisting?
- Are you able to advise for each role what % of candidates are selected out at each stage of recruitment following shortlisting?
- What % of ACAs train to become ATs?
I would be interested in the statistics over the most recent 5-year period. Failing that whichever years you have available.
Your statement in 2017 refers to both overall selection and those selected out at shortlisting.
- Response
Q1 to 3. Please see below 1 table each for Ambulance Care Assistant and Ambulance Technician recruitment for the financial years 2021/22 to 2025/26.
Please note this important Information when interpreting this data:
- Over each of the years included, the offer process was completed offline so caution should be exercised when using this data as it may not accurately reflect the circumstances of each candidate.
- The Scottish Ambulance Service has a responsibility to protect the identities and personal information of individuals. Accordingly, where figures are fewer than five, they have been withheld and shown as “<5” because disclosure could create a risk of identification. To the extent that the withheld information constitutes personal data, it is exempt from disclosure under section 38(1)(b) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, as disclosure would contravene the data protection principles.
Q4. Where candidates were shortlisted but not interviewed this could be for a variety of reasons including but not limited to, candidates not attending the interview or withdrawing their application.
Q5. Although an applicant’s current role may be recorded on their individual application form, this information is not held in a centrally reportable format or linked in a way that enables SAS to identify the proportion of Ambulance Care Assistants who subsequently train to become Ambulance Technicians. Calculating the requested percentage would require SAS to review and compare individual recruitment records and create new information that is not currently held. Accordingly, under section 17(1) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, I can confirm that we do not hold the information requested.
