Ambulance Services: Abuse
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what national policy interventions are being developed to help reduce abusive incidents against emergency ambulance workers.
Answered by Karin Smyth
Everyone working in the National Health Service has a fundamental right to be safe at work, including ambulance workers. At a national level there are several policy interventions being implemented and developed to help prevent and reduce violence against NHS staff.
In April 2025, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, announced that the Social Partnership Forum’s recommendations on tackling and reducing violence, part of the 2023 Agenda for Change pay deal, had been accepted in full. This includes measures to improve data and reporting, strengthen risk assessment, and improve training and support for victims. This will be bolstered by the introduction of a new set of staff standards, as detailed in the 10-Year Health Plan. The standards will be included in the NHS Oversight Framework and act as an early warning signal for the Care Quality Commission.
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