FOI 26-346 Community First Responders
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 26-346 Community First Responders
- Request Date
- 05 Aug 2026
- Response Date
- 02 Sep 2026
- Information Requested
Please arrange for completion and return of the attached Microsoft Excel Document, which contains 5 tabs
- CFR Workforce & Availability
- Dispatch Rules & Eligibility
- Scope of Practice & Equipment
- Geographical
- Demand & Workload Context
- Response
The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act provides a right of access to recorded information held at the time a request is received. It does not require an authority to create new information, undertake fresh analysis or complete a template or spreadsheet that it does not already hold in that form. We have therefore not completed the attached workbook. However, in accordance with our duty to provide reasonable advice and assistance under section 15 of FOISA, we have summarised the relevant recorded information held and directed you to previously published responses where appropriate. If you require clarification about the information provided or wish to refine any part of your request so that it more closely identifies information held by the Service, we will provide reasonable assistance.
The Scottish Ambulance Service has previously published information relevant to this request through its Freedom of Information disclosure log. The available information is summarised below under the requested headings. The figures reflect the position at the date of each published response and may therefore differ from current operational data.
Community First Responder Workforce and Availability
Please see below the information which is the current situation in the Scottish Ambulance Service. These figures are extracted live from our data base at the point of reporting and as such, we do not hold information for previous time periods.
Active CFRs: 674
Inactive/On-Leave CFRs: 141
Total CFR Hours Booked On: 76,278
Average Hours per CFR per Month: Based on responses to the 2026 Community Responder Survey, Community First Responders reported making themselves available for an estimated average of 33 hours per month. This represents time booked on as available to respond and does not necessarily reflect time spent attending incidents.
CFR availability is voluntary: responders must book themselves available before they can be considered for allocation. The figures for CFR hours booked on and average monthly hours may be incomplete or underrepresent actual availability, as there is no single automated data source and the information relies on manual returns from individual schemes.
Dispatch Rules and Eligibility
The Scottish Ambulance Service does not hold recorded information about dispatch rules and eligibility in the format or level of detail set out in the spreadsheet. Accordingly, under section 17(1) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, we give notice that the specific information requested is not held. In accordance with our duty to provide reasonable advice and assistance under section 15 of FOISA, the relevant recorded information we do hold is summarised below.
A Community First Responder may be dispatched where the responder is booked available, the incident is within the responder’s prescribed geographical area (a designated polygon), and the call falls within the agreed code set for CFR attendance. The broad emergency presentations identified as suitable include cardiac arrest, heart conditions, breathing problems, chest pain, stroke, choking, anaphylaxis and diabetes.
Community First Responder Scope of Practice and Equipment
The Scottish Ambulance Service does not hold the information required to complete the spreadsheet in the specific format or level of detail requested. The information held by the Scottish Ambulance Service about the Community First Responder scope of practice, governance and associated equipment is already publicly available in our published Community First Responder Governance document. Section 25(1) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 exempts information from disclosure where the applicant can reasonably obtain it other than by making a request under section 1(1) of FOISA. We have therefore applied section 25(1) to the information that is publicly available. In accordance with our duty to provide reasonable advice and assistance under section 15 of FOISA, the relevant published document is identified below. FOI26-031 First Responders Governance Document.
Geographical
There are currently 145 active CFR groups nationally. The Scottish Ambulance Service does not classify Community First Responder schemes using an urban or rural definition and therefore do not hold a recorded urban/rural split for the schemes. In addition, the scheme information is held as a current operational record and historic snapshots for previous years are not retained. Accordingly, under section 17(1) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, we give notice that the requested urban/rural breakdown and information for previous years are not held.
The table below shows the average time from mobilisation to arrival on scene for Community First Responders. Figures for 2026 cover 1 January to 31 July only.
Demand and Workload Context
Please see the table below detailing the demand and workload context of a CFR from 01/01/2023 - 31/07/2026. The first column details the total number of emergency calls received by the Scottish Ambulance Service that included a code suitable for a CFR.
The second column details the total number of incidents a CFR resources that were mobilised to an incident but did not arrive on scene.
The third and fourth column details the total annual incident attendances by CFR where they arrived before an emergency ambulance resource or after an emergency ambulance resource.
Year
Total 999 Calls Eligible for CFR Dispatch
CFR Dispatches Cancelled En Route
CFR Arrived Before Ambulance (count)
CFR Arrived After Ambulance (count)
2023
261,193
611
3,642
656
2024
279,743
623
3,999
663
2025
260,771
693
3,874
704
2026
152,568
926
2,453
511
