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HM COASTGUARD

Introduction

The Government of the United Kingdom assumes responsibility for civilan Search and Rescue (SAR) within the UK and its aviation and maritime Search and Rescue Regions. The maritime responsibility arises from the UK Government's acceptance of the Convention of the High Seas 1958, of the International Conventions of  Safety of Life at Sea 1960 and 1974, and of the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue 1979 (as amended). The lead Government Department for UKSAR is the Department for Transport (DfT), which delegates the authority for responding to maritime incidents to HM Coastguard by the authority of the Coastguard Act 1925.

HM Coastguard is an on-call emergency organisation responsible for the initiation and co-ordination of all civilian maritime SAR within the UK Maritime Search and Rescue Region. This includes the mobilisation, organisation and tasking of adequate resources to respond to persons either in distress at sea, or to persons at risk of injury or death on the cliffs or shoreline of the United Kingdom.

The 19 Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centres (MRCCs) around the UK Coast form a network of command and control centres for responding to reports of maritime and coastal distress. MRCC watch-keeping staff provide a 24 hour service to mariners and coast users in receiving incoming disress calls, alerting the appropriate rescue assets, and co-ordinating the rescue effort.

United Kingdom Maritime Search and Rescue Region
HM Coastguard responds to Search and Rescue (SAR) incidents that occur within the UK SAR region.  This region covers some 1.25 million square nautical miles of sea and over 10.5 thousand nautical miles of coastline.  The eastern boundary of the UK SAR region joins those of Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium in the North Sea, France in the English Channel.  To the west the UK SAR region extends into the North Atlantic to meet those of Canada, Portugal, the Irish Republic and Iceland.

Maritime Search and Rescue Assets

Who can respond

HM Coastguard is equipped and organised to act as national co-ordinator of all civil maritime Search and Rescue (SAR). In responding to reports of casualties at sea or on the coast, HM Coastguard will can call upon a wide range of facilities made available by the organisations participating in UKSAR. These are known as Declared Assets, which are facilities designated as being available for civil maritime SAR according to a specific standard or set criteria.

The full list of declared SAR Facilities is extensive, but includes:

• HM Coastguard's own auxiliary Initial Response and Coastguard Rescue Teams;
• Inshore lifeboats, all-weather lifeboats and inshore rescue hovercraft operated by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution
• other nominated inshore rescue services
• Search and Rescue helicopters under contract to the MCA
• Ministry of Defence SAR helicopters and fixed wing aircraft operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and Royal Navy (RN)
• Emergency Towing Vessels (ETV) - powerful tugs contracted to the MCA
• nominated Fire Service teams for cliff and mud rescue as well as firefighting and chemical incident response for vessels at sea
• nominated beach lifeguard units

Additional facilities are also available from time to time.  These are not to any specified standard, but a sample of those which may be called upon can include:

• vessels in the vicinity of the casualty;
• such non-declared aircraft and ships as the Ministry of Defence may be able to make available
• vessels under the control of various authorities including lighthouse and pilotage authorities, HM Customs and Excise and Police
• Auxiliary Coastguards (Reporting and Afloat)
• helicopters and other facilities made available by offshore oil operators
• foreign SRR facilities
• MCA Boats and HMCG Rescue Boats
• Police, Fire and Ambulance Services
• Mountain and Cave Rescue Teams

The primary objective in SAR is the safe recovery of any person or persons in distress.  HM Coastguard will make the best use of all available resources, both its own and those of other SAR providers in order to pursue this objective.  Casualties can occur regardless of political and administrative boundaries, and the response to any given incident can often require a "joined up" approach from different agencies, sometimes from more than one country,  working in partnership. To learn more about some of our partners you can visit their web sites by clicking on the links at the bottom of the page.  HM Coastguard hold regular live exercises with ferry operators, the RNLI, fire, police and ambulance services as well as local authorities and other agencies in order to test the SAR response.

MCA and Coastguard Assets

HM Coastguard Contract Helicopters The MCA currently operates three contracted Sikorsky S61N Search and Rescue Helicpters which have full night /all weather operations capacity  and are based at Sumburgh Airport (Shetland), Stornoway (Isle of Lewis) and Lee-on-Solent and are capable of the full range of airborne SAR tasks. A fourth S61N helicopter is stationed at Portland (near Weymouth) and provides additional cover during daylight hours.
Emergency Towing Vessels The MCA has four Emergency Towing Vessels (ETVs) on charter, to provide emergency towing cover in those areas judged to be at higher risk from environmental damage as a result of the possible grounding of broken down vessels. The ETV's are stationed in the Fair Isle, Minches, South Western Approaches and the Dover Strait areas and are available 24 hours per day throughout the year.  They are also equipped for firefighting.
Auxiliary Coastguard Service The Auxiliary Coastguard Service(ACS) is a voluntary organisation managed, trained and equipped by HM Coastguard. to proceed to any coastal SAR incident that may arise. Coastguard Rescue teams are located at strategic locations around the the coast. These are equipped to deal with incidents and rescues appropriate to the risks associated with local coastal terrain and local shoreline activities and conditions.
Cliff Rescue Although the dangers of getting too close to the edge of a cliff might seem obvious, Coastguard Rescue Teams are nevertheless regularly summoned to the aid of persons and animals who have fallen and are often severely injured. Cliff teams are trained and equipped to extricate the casualty as safely as possible for medical treatment.  Sadly the the cliff teams' role also includes the recovery of those who have not survived their fall.
Mud Rescue The perils of soft mud and quicksand around the UK coast may be less obvious to the unwary, but can be just as deadly. Local Coastgurd Rescue Teams have specialised equipment and training for freeing casualties and bringing them safely to firm ground.
MCA Launches In addition to a small number of RHIB rescue craft, HM Coastguard also operate a fleet of MCA Patrol Boats. These vessels are primarily intended for a variety of non-SAR roles including Receiver of Wreck duties,  fishing vessel inspections, Sector Managers' duties, at sea inspections, accident prevention and enforcement of MCA Codes of Practice, but they can also respond to SAR incidents if needed.

Maritime SAR Links

The following links will take you to the web sites of some of HM Coastguard's partners:

• Royal National Lifeboat Institution,
• Ministry of Defence - Royal Navy Search and Rescue
• Ministry of Defence - RAF Search and Rescue
• Irish Coast Guard
• CROSS maritime rescue centres, France  (part of the French Ministère de l'Equipment des Transport et du Logement web site - this presentation is in French only)
• Netherlands Coastguard

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