The fell race up Glen Rosa was cancelled when safety cover was withdrawn. Photo: Val Vannet CC-BY-SA-2.0

The umbrella body for mountain rescue in Scotland has moved to ensure team members have accident insurance when fundraising and providing safety cover for events such as fell races.

Police insurance policies cover volunteer rescue team members when they are operating on callouts, but there has been ambiguity about the level of protection on other events.

The creation of a single police force in Scotland brought the matter to a head when Arran Mountain Rescue Team was told its members would not be covered by Police Scotland personal accident insurance while they were helping the organisers of the Glen Rosa Race.

Teams had argued that providing safety for such events was a useful training exercise.

The withdrawal of the mountain rescue team was blamed for the cancellation of the race.

Now, the Mountain Rescue Committee of Scotland has agreed to provide insurance for its member teams during such events.

It will use part of the annual grant – currently £312,000 – from the Scottish Government to provide the cover, the cost of which is estimated at between £30,000 and £40,000.

A MRCofS statement said: “Prior to 1 April, the eight legacy constabularies did not provide personal accident cover specific to the voluntary civilian teams for fundraising or third-party event support or marshalling activities.

“However, some constabularies did agree with their teams that attendance at these events could be perceived to be training. This was often a verbal agreement and not consistent in its interpretation across all constabularies and hence many parties assumed cover was in place.

“There was never a claim made by any civilian MR team against the PA insurance cover in relation to a fund raising or third party event support and so this situation was never tested.

“In our opinion the position with personal accident insurance has been ambiguous for many years.”

The MRCofS said Police Scotland’s PA cover for mountain rescue deployments and training remains in place and for many teams their levels of death and disability cover have been enhanced.

“Police Scotland PA cover does not include team fundraising or safety or marshalling cover at third party events,” it said. “The MRCofS welcomes this clarity. This deals with the long standing ambiguity in this subject area.”

The organisation said it was in discussions with a broker and would put the arrangements in place as soon as possible.

It added: “The MRCofS is focused on providing clear insurance arrangements and making sure our volunteers’ welfare is at the forefront of our decision making.”