Queen's Birthday Honours 2019 - Fire, Police and Ambulance Service

Recipients of Queen’s Fire, Police and Ambulance Service medals in Scotland are as follows:

Queen’s Police Medal

• Gail Johnston , Detective Superintendent, Police Scotland
• Brian McInulty, Chief Superintendent, Police Scotland

Queen’s Fire Service Medal

• John Joyce, Area Manager, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service
• John Dickie, Assistant Chief Officer, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service

Queen’s Ambulance Service Medal

• Lorraine Tough, Business Support Manager, Scottish Ambulance Service

QUEEN’S POLICE MEDAL

Gail Johnston, Detective Superintendent, Police Scotland

Gail Johnston joined Strathclyde Police on 14 May 1990.  

In addition to her early uniform duties, she spent three years within Special Branch as an Authorised Firearms Officer (AFO) undertaking Personal Protection Officer duties for VIPs visiting Glasgow, including Government Ministers and members of the Royal Household. 

In 2004, Gail was promoted to Detective Sergeant (Force Intelligence) before being promoted to Divisional Detective Inspector three years later.  For the next five years, Gail led both reactive and proactive Criminal Investigations, before being appointed as the Divisional Offender Management Detective Inspector. 

Since 2009, Gail has dedicated her career to improving the police and multi-agency response to, and management of, Registered Sex Offenders (RSOs).   

In 2012, she was promoted to Detective Chief Inspector for Offender Management.

At the launch of Police Scotland, Gail was heavily involved in the development of the National Offender Management Unit (NOMU) and led the transformation work to develop the National ViSOR Unit (NVU), while supporting her staff through this significant period of organisational change.

Since October 2015, Gail has led the National Offender Management Unit and National ViSOR Unit within Police Scotland, initially as Temporary Detective Superintendent before her substantive promotion in May 2017.  

As the strategic lead for Offender Management, Gail has been at the forefront of reviewing and developing national policy and practice, including the introduction of new MAPPA Level 2 & 3 document set and Risk Training and Police Risk Practice Process.

Gail has ensured that Police Scotland is at the forefront of maximising opportunities to manage offenders, championing the need for technological investment to assist the management of registered sex offenders in response to the increase in internet-enabled sexual offending and internet related Sexual Offences Prevention Order conditions.  Her research and consultation with experts within IT and Cybercrime locally and nationally led to the introduction of the Remote Monitoring Software in Scotland.  

Brian McInulty, Chief Superintendent, Police Scotland

Chief Superintendent Brian McInulty joined Strathclyde Police in 1989. The early part of his career was operationally focused in Lanarkshire and in Glasgow, where he performed various roles within response policing. 

In 2009, Brian was appointed as Area Commander for East Dunbartonshire before he was promoted to Superintendent within Glasgow City Centre, where he was initially responsible for Crime and Performance and more recently for Operational Policing delivery.

During this time, the police service in Scotland embarked upon a period of unparalleled reorganisation. As part of this process, Brian was given the daunting task of amalgamating three of the country’s busiest and most challenging policing divisions. The success of this amalgamation served as proof of concept for even more significant police reform across the country, and ultimately the establishment of Scotland’s first national police force.  In the lead up to the creation of Police Scotland, Brian undertook the role of Operations Superintendent in the newly formed Greater Glasgow Division. 

As an experienced Public Order Commander, Brian was responsible for delivering training to the Malawi Police Service in the lead up to the Malawian Elections of 2014. He subsequently returned to Malawi on several occasions to provide further training to their police leaders following the elections.

Brian was also the Divisional Commander for the Police Service of Scotland’s Criminal Justice Division from September 2014 until March 2016, when he was redeployed to the Greater Glasgow Division, this time as Divisional Commander.

Chief Superintendent Brian McInulty has made regular contributions to improving the foundation and the reputation of local communities in Glasgow. As well as dealing with organised crime groups, Brian has helped deliver safe and secure major events like TRNSMT and the recent European Championships. He was the first senior officer on-scene at the tragic Clutha helicopter crash and managed the return of regular Old Firm football fixtures, carrying out his duties with great distinction and an overwhelming sense of pride.

QUEEN’S FIRE SERVICE MEDAL

John Joyce, Area Manager, SFRS

Area Manager (AM) John Joyce has a long and distinguished service, beginning his duty with Strathclyde Fire Brigade and concluding his career with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS).

John has many achievements to his credit, including his work with young people whilst serving as a Station Manager at Easterhouse Fire Station. 

At this time, Easterhouse had a high incidence of deliberate fires, anti-social behaviour and attacks on fire crews which included the vandalism of hydrants and a high volume of hoax and malicious calls.  John formed a partnership with the police, housing and Scottish Water that enabled targeted joint interventions where known offenders were engaged and supported. The initiative had an immediate positive impact with over 100 incidents of anti-social behaviour falling to zero.

To compliment this programme, AM Joyce created a means to proactively engage young people in the community through a ‘Saturday Club’ which brought P7 children to the station to work with, and be mentored by firefighters.  During the course of a year, over 500 young people took part in the ‘Saturday Club’ and the associated benefits were recognised when the initiative was awarded the COSLA Excellence Award. 

AM Joyce has a proven track record in delivering major projects.  His contributions to the creation of the £12 million training centre were pivotal.  On the formation of the SFRS, this resource not only became a centre for training excellence, but also the service’s national headquarters. 

John is a highly regarded Operational Officer who successfully led operations at recent incidents including the Glasgow Fruit Market, Cameron House Hotel and Glasgow School of Art. 

John Dickie, Assistant Chief Officer, SFRS

Assistant Chief Officer John Dickie has played an active role in supporting the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) from its creation, taking control of the change from the Lothian & Borders Fire and Rescue Service to the new area of the SFRS.

During these early stages, he assumed the role of Local Senior Officer (LSO) for Edinburgh City and worked tirelessly with partners to achieve the SFRS’s objectives and priorities of promoting both community and firefighter safety. Building on his success in Edinburgh, John was appointed LSO for Scottish Borders, Mid & East Lothian, a post commanding two LSO Areas.

John’s current role as Head of Response and Resilience has placed him in a demanding and difficult role which has required him to work with internal and external agencies and partners to deliver policies which ensure our country remains resilient in the face of new and emerging risks.

He has applied himself fully during difficult times and in doing so has made huge personal sacrifices in order to meet the demands required of his role.

In response to the UK threat level being raised to ‘Critical’ for the first time in 2017 John worked to develop and put in place a policy which ensured that the SFRS stood ready to respond to any eventuality. This involved the assembly of a volunteer specialist team of firefighters who could be deployed in order to treat the victims of terrorism.

In March 2018, the SFRS deployed with partners to manage the impact of cold weather and unprecedented snow storms. The systems to manage severe weather situations were designed by John and, when activated, ensured that the SFRS was prepared to respond and protect all Scottish Communities. Moreover, during this period, John was deployed as the SFRS’s Silver Commander and worked with other responders to co-ordinate the massive and protracted response to the 2,000 vehicles trapped on the M80.

John Dickie is a sound and dedicated officer who has served his former service and the SFRS well. His leadership was most recently demonstrated when he led the logistical support behind the major fire affecting numerous properties in Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street. This was the largest test of the SFRS’s capability and required huge professionalism and dedication in order to manage the logistics behind a sustained attendance of 30 SFRS assets and 120 firefighters.

QUEEN’S AMBULANCE SERVICE MEDAL

Lorraine Tough, Business Support Manager, Scottish Ambulance Service

Lorraine Tough started her career with the Scottish Ambulance Service 19 years ago, joining the service in 1999 as a Control Room Assistant. From the start of her career,  Lorraine has demonstrated exceptional ability and determination to go beyond the expected, driving innovation to improve staff and patient experience whilst building enthusiasm and confidence.

As a project officer in 2007, Lorraine co-designed the first dedicated Palliative Care Ambulance in Scotland with patients, families and the Marie Curie charity. This service provided a bespoke transport service for end of life patients. In 2011, having completed her postgraduate education, Lorraine applied her learning within a key role in the Scheduled Care Improvement Programme to redesign the service, developing a new Patient Needs Assessment and standardising working practices for Patient Transport Service (PTS) Control staff which allowed patients to request transport directly from the service.

Lorraine also played a key role in introducing mobile technology to PTS vehicles, significantly improving the ability of Control staff to allocate and oversee patient journeys. In 2014 she further improved the performance and efficiency of the Ambulance Service by project-managing the introduction of GRS, a national electronic shift rostering and resource management system replacing fragmented paper processes. The system can be accessed by staff at work or from a mobile device.

Lorraine has a national reputation for nurturing staff to change and improve how they work and is recognised by her colleagues throughout the Scottish Ambulance Service as a ‘go-to person’. Her daily focus is to ensure that the service delivers high quality patient care. In summary, Lorraine has demonstrated, and continues to demonstrate, exemplary and distinguished service to patients, staff and the organisation as a whole.

Lorraine is currently Business Support Manager in East Region and continues to work closely with her counterparts across the service, sharing her knowledge, experience and skills for the benefit of the team and, ultimately, for all patients.