📊 Current Statistics on Abuse Against UK Ambulance Staff (2024–2026)

Record Levels of Violence and Abuse: 

In the 2024–25 financial year, ambulance staff in the UK faced 22,536 reported incidents of violence, aggression, and abuse — an increase of nearly 15% on the previous year. That’s equivalent to about 62 ambulance workers abused every day — almost three every hour.  

Official forecasts from the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) projected that incidents would exceed 20,000 nationally in 2024-25 — the highest ever recorded.  

Long-Term Rising Trend:

In recent years, recorded incidents grew markedly:

• 2021–22: ~15,430
• 2022–23: ~15,857
• 2023–24: ~19,633
• 2024–25: on course for >20,000+ attacks.
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Daily Reality for Staff:

On average, at least 55 ambulance workers are abused or attacked every day across the UK. 

In London alone, staff experienced 1,816 physical and verbal attacks from April to Dec 2024 — averaging roughly 7 incidents per day.  

 

Underreporting and Broader NHS Context:

Many incidents go unreported due to workload pressures and prioritising patient care, so real figures are likely significantly higher. 

A recent NHS survey suggests that across the NHS, staff experience hundreds of thousands of violent incidents yearly — about 285 a day — and violence is increasingly a widespread issue.  

 

🚑 Impact on Staff and Services:

Personal and Professional Consequences-

• Ambulance staff report frequent fear, anxiety, and stress as a result of violence on shift.
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  Abuse contributes to sickness absence, lower morale, and can even push experienced workers to leave the profession.

 

Demographic Effects:

• Female ambulance staff are reportedly disproportionately affected by assaults — about three times more likely than the NHS average.  

 

Operational Effects: 

Increased violence can delay care, affect response times, and put additional strain on already stretched services.

 

Voices from the Frontline: 

Staff have reported being spat at, punched, threatened with weapons, and sexually harassed while doing their job.  

Paramedics talk about feeling unsupported by police or employers when incidents occur, especially in cases where body-worn cameras have captured abuse.  

In frontline discussions medics describe growing aggression tied to drug or alcohol use, mental health crises, and repeat nuisance calls, and many note that warnings about violent patients are inconsistently shared with crews. 

This petition aims for warning marker to be placed on patients not on addresses, a building/ property has never assaulted me… people have!

Ambulance staff are the frontline lifeline of emergency healthcare. Rising abuse not only jeopardises their safety and wellbeing but also the quality and reliability of emergency care for patients across the UK.

 

Legal Framework & Campaign Responses

Existing Law:

The Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 criminalises attacks on emergency workers, but ambulance unions and leaders argue that sentencing is inconsistent and doesn’t always act as a deterrent.