First-aid charity St John Ambulance has recorded its first operating surplus in seven years, as its income grew by nine per cent in 2014 to £99.2m.

The charity’s accounts, filed last week with Companies House, show that its total income grew by £7.9m in the year ending 31 December 2014. Income growth was spread fairly evenly across all of the organisation’s activities.

Overall income from charitable activities grew by £4.7m to £80.4m - £41.3m of this came from first aid training, a £2.5m growth from 2013, while money earned from ambulance and transport services rose from £18.7m to £20.8m and voluntary income from £11.9m to £13.7m.

The charity spent £96.8m, some £200,000 less than it spent in the previous year. This left the charity with a net income over 2014 of £2.4m, its first operating surplus since 2007.

St John Ambulance employed 1,729 full-time equivalent staff in 2014, a 44 person increase in the staff numbers from 2013. The accounts show that the charity’s highest earner, who is not named, received a total remuneration of between £140,001 and £150,000 a year, and 36 employees earned more than £60,001, two more than during the previous year.

The director’s report of the accounts said that the charity provided first-aid training to “approximately 225,000 people” in 2014. The charity also provided “fully trained and equipped personnel to over 30,000 public events every year,” where they treated “approximately 90,000 individuals”.