FOI 26-229 Coastguard Incidents
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 26-229 Coastguard Incidents
- Request Date
- 12 Jun 2026
- Response Date
- 26 Jun 2026
- Information Requested
This request is to assist public understanding of inter agency search & rescue coordination and public safety. Please provide the following information in electronic format.
1. Policy documents
Please provide any current EOC/control room SOPs, call handling guidance, checklists or dispatch procedures that cover 999 incidents at littoral/coastal locations (including beaches, foreshore, cliffs, tidal rivers/estuaries, harbours, marinas and piers). In addition, please provide any documents that mention notifying, tasking, requesting or deploying HM Coastguard resources (including Coastguard Rescue Teams and HM Coastguard helicopters).
2. Definition / trigger for notifying HM Coastguard
Please provide the exact wording of any policy, guidance or prompt used by your EOC that defines when staff must notify HM Coastguard (for example: 'person in water', 'below high-water mark', 'on cliffs', 'cut off by tide', etc.). Does this policy require HM Coastguard to be notified for incidents matching that wording? Please answer Yes or No.
3. Incident counts by service (aggregated) — 1 January 2023 to present
Please provide an anonymised table (CSV or Excel preferred) that, for your ambulance service as a whole and broken down by year, gives counts of:
• number of 999 incidents recorded by your EOC that occurred at littoral/coastal locations (including beaches, foreshore, cliffs, tidal rivers/estuaries, harbours, marinas and piers);
• of those, number where HM Coastguard was notified at initial tasking; and
• of those, number where HM Coastguard was not notified at initial tasking.
4. No policy explanation (if applicable)
If your service does not hold a formal EOC/control room policy, SOP or written guidance that defines when HM Coastguard must be notified for littoral incidents, please state 'no formal policy' and explain why no such policy exists and what informal or alternative arrangements, if any, are used instead.- Response
Q1 - The Scottish Ambulance Service holds a current written guidance document relevant to this part of your request, titled Practice Guideline – Water Related Incidents. This document applies to Dispatchers, Supervisors and Managers within the Ambulance Control Centre. A copy of this document is attached.
The guidance sets out the approach to water-related incidents, including coastal incidents (in or out of water) and inland water incidents (non-domestic situation). It also includes guidance on partner agency notification, including notification of Police Scotland, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA).
Parts of this document has been redacted under section 38(1)(b) of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002 as it contains personal information.
Q2 - The relevant wording held in the Practice Guideline is as follows:
“Identifying for consideration: Coastal incidents (in or out of water) Inland water incidents (non-domestic situation).”
The guidance then states:
“ACC dispatch will then notify category 1 responders Police Scotland (PS), the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) & Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA): explicitly detailing the nature of the incident and emphasising the involvement of water, out with domestic drowning situation.”
Yes. The guidance instructs ACC dispatch to notify the MCA for the water-related incidents described above.
Some information has been redacted under section 38(1)(b) of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002 as it is the personal data of third parties (staff names). Disclosure would contravene the data protection principles.
Information on pages 4 and 5 has been withheld under section 30(c) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. Section 30(c) applies where disclosure would, or would be likely to, substantially prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs.
The withheld information contains detailed operational and coordination information relating to emergency incident management, including roles, responsibilities, communication structures and deployment arrangements.
Disclosure of this level of operational detail would be likely to create a vulnerability by providing insight into how the Service and partner agencies respond to incidents. This could be used to disrupt, exploit or place additional demand on emergency response arrangements, thereby impacting the Service’s ability to respond effectively and safely to incidents.
This would, or would be likely to, substantially prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs, specifically the Scottish Ambulance Service’s ability to manage emergency responses.
Q3 – Although the Scottish Ambulance Service does hold location information in relation to incidents, this is not categorised in a way that allows us to report on location type such as littoral/coastal locations as specified in your request. It is for this reason we are applying section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002 as information not held.
It is also for this reason we cannot identify the total number of incidents at a littoral/coastal location where HM Coastguard was not tasked. We have also applied section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002 to this section of your request.
The Scottish Ambulance Service can identify the total number of times a year HM Coastguard has been tasked by SAS; this has been identified using the patient report forms where it has been noted in the ‘additional resources’ field.
It is important to note when interpreting this data
This report has been produced in two parts, this is due to the ongoing integration of a new system. This data cannot be merged into one table due to an overlap in a phased introduction of each system and the methodology for the data time frames is different.
They do not indicate whether HM Coastguard was notified at initial tasking, nor whether notification occurred prior to or during the incident.
Recording of additional resources is dependent on crew input and therefore may not capture all instances of HM Coastguard involvement.
These figures are not limited to littoral/coastal locations, as this classification is not held in a structured format.
T2 Incidents – Coastguard coded as additional resource
Calendar Year
Incidents
2023
139
2024
157
2025
55
2026
6
T3 Incidents – Coastguard coded as additional resource
Calendar Year
Incidents
2024
7
2025
118
2026
60
Q4 - This part of your request is not applicable, as the Scottish Ambulance Service does hold a current written guidance document relevant to water-related incidents and partner agency notification, namely Practice Guideline – Water Related Incidents, which has been provided in response to question 1.
- Response Documents
-
Practice Guideline Water Related Incidents Redacted (1) (PDF | 263KB)
