§ Mr. JenkinsTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many former ambulance personnel are on retirement pensions; and how many ambulance personnel there are in service. [82172]
§ Mr. Hutton[holding answer 27 November 2002]: The information requested is not collected centrally. The number of staff who have taken a retirement pension since the establishment of ambulance trusts, up to 8 November 2002, is 1,645. The number of ambulance staff in service at 30 September 2001 was 16,920.
§ Chris GraylingTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many assaults on ambulance staff were recorded in each of the past five years. [85770]
§ Mr. HuttonInformation on the type of and levels of violent incidents by individual staff group is not collected centrally, but may be held at a local level by national health service employers. Data on violent incidents involving all staff in the NHS was not collected on a national basis prior to 1998.
The results of the 2000–2001 survey of reported violent or abusive incidents, accidents involving staff and sickness absence in NHS trusts and health authorities in England have been placed in the Library, along with a report setting out the Government's proposed action in light of the findings. The survey found that there were an estimated 13 reported violent or abusive incidents per 1,000 staff per month in ambulance trusts, compared to an estimated ten such incidents for all NHS trusts.