Meetings between Justice Secretary and Scottish Mountain Rescue: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/17/02711
Date received: 8 November 2017
Date responded: 29 November 2017

Information requested

1. Details of any meetings between the Justice Secretary and/or representatives of him with Scottish Mountain Rescue or its representatives since 1st January 2015 to include minutes of said meetings.

2. Details of any meetings between the Justice Secretary and/or representatives of him with Independent Scottish Mountain Rescue (Glencoe, Lochaber, Cairngorm, Tayside MRTs) or their representatives since 1st January 2015 to include minutes of said meetings.

3. Details of the current funding formula pertaining to mountain rescue teams affiliated to SMR and/or iSMR and Police Scotland

4. Details of all funding to mountain rescue teams since 1st January 2015 to include the above annual grant, provision of additional funds such as radio replacements, provision of medical equipment to Scottish Ambulance Service for distribution to SMR etc.

Response

I enclose the information you requested as below:

1. Details of the meetings between the Justice Secretary and Scottish Mountain Rescue, since 1st January 2015 are as follows:-

• 11 August 2015, Cabinet Secretary for Justice met with SMR Chair, Simon Steer, and MR team members, 11:30 am, Argyll St Police Station, Ullapool; no minutes of meeting were recorded by SG.

• 10 March 2016, Cabinet Secretary for Justice met with SMR Chair Damon Powell, and Vice Chair, Kevin Mitchell, 10:30, Room T3:02, Scottish Parliament, Holyrood; no minutes of meeting were recorded by SG.

• 02 November 2017, Cabinet Sec met with SMR Chair, Damon Powell and Vice Chair, Kevin Mitchell; 16:00 Room T4.61, Scottish Parliament, Holyrood;no minutes of meeting were recorded by SG.

• Scottish Government officials have met with SMR representatives on a number of occasions, since 1st January 2015, as below; no minutes of those meetings were recorded by SG:-

• 10 Jun 2015; SAH, Edinburgh, 11:15, 'Meet & Greet'; SMR Chair; Simon Steer

• 29 Mar 2016; SAH, Edinburgh, 14:30, 'SMR Media Strategy'; SMR Vice Chair, Kevin Mitchell

• 11 May 2016; AQ, Glasgow, 12:00, 'Meet & Greet'; SMR Chair; Damon Powell

• 09 Nov 2016; SAH, Edinburgh, 10:30, 'Pre UK SAR'; SMR Chair; Damon Powell

• 24 Nov 2016; SAH, Edinburgh, 10:30, 'VHF Radio Spec', SMR Radio leads; Bill Glennie, Laura Alexander

• 13 Jan 2017; SAH, Edinburgh, 11:00, 'Meet & Greet', SMR Secretary, Alastair Rose

• 21 Mar 2017; Police Station, Stirling, 'VHF Radios', SMR Chair; Damon Powell, SMR Radio lead; Bill Glennie,

• 04 May 2017; SAH, Edinburgh, 10:45, 'Pre UKSAR', SMR Secretary, Alastair Rose

• 02 Jun 2017; AQ, Glasgow, 12:15, 'VHF Radios', SMR Chair, Damon Powell

• 24 Jun 2017; Carrbridge, 10:30, SMR AGM, SMR Executive & Members

• 26 Oct 2017; Edinburgh, 14:30, 'VHF Radios', SMR Chair, Damon Powell, SMR Vice Chair, Kevin Mitchell, SMR Radio lead, Bill Glennie

• 10 Nov 2017; AQ, Glasgow, 10:30, 'VHF Radio Spec', SMR Radio leads; Bill Glennie, Laura Alexander

2. Neither the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, nor Scottish Government officials, have met with Independent Scottish Mountain Rescue since 1st January 2015.

3. The current funding formula pertaining to mountain rescue teams affiliated to SMR and/or iSMR and Police Scotland is attached.

4. Details of all funding to mountain rescue teams since 1st January 2015 including the annual grant, additional funds for radio replacements etc, are provided below:

• Oct 2015: £2,419; annual radio licence fee

• Jan 2016: £312,000; annual grant to SMR towards the cost of 'land based search and rescue' carried out by MR teams

• Mar 2016: £24,000; to SMR to carry out MR radio reprogramming work necessary due to international changes to radio frequencies and channels.

• Nov 2016: £4,477; annual radio licence fee

• Jan 2017: £312,000; annual grant to SMR towards the cost of 'land based search and rescue' carried out by MR teams

• Mar 2017: £42,000; to SMR to help fund the Mountain Rescue VHF radio re-provisioning programme

• Apr 2017: £7,675; annual radio licence fee

Each year, SG is responsible for providing SAS with a high level block of funding to deliver its service priorities. Detailed information about the allocation of that funding is not held by SG.

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FOI-17-02711 - Funding Formula Distribution.pdf

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