HM Coastguard
His Majesty's Coastguard is the section of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency responsible, through the Secretary of State for Transport to Parliament, for the initiation and co-ordination of all maritime search and rescue 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. Since 2015 it has also been responsible for land-based search and rescue helicopter operations.
The chief executive of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency is Virginia McVea.
His Majesty's Coastguard is a uniformed service that fulfils six of the nine functions required by the International Maritime Organization :
- Search and Rescue
- Pollution Response
- Vessel Traffic Management
- Maritime Safety
- Accident and Disaster Response
- Maritime Security
Lifeboat services are provided by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, or other independent lifeboat stations not affiliated with the RNLI, all under the coordination of the Coastguard. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency wet leases commercial aircraft for HM Coastguard operations — Sikorsky S-92s, AgustaWestland AW189s, and AgustaWestland AW139s — to provide aerial search and rescue coverage around Great Britain and Northern Ireland. HM Coastguard can similarly utilise a range of fixed-wing aircraft such as the Beechcraft King Air, Diamond DA-62, and Piper PA-31 Navajo in reconnaissance, surveillance, and counter-pollution roles. Aeronautical assets are coordinated through the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre based in Fareham, Hampshire, as and when requested by the regional Rescue Coordination Centres. An ocean-going emergency towing vehicle is also operated in areas not served by tug brokers. On the coastline, HM Coastguard maintains a network of cliff and mud rescue teams, composed of around 4,000 volunteers, and can call upon the National Coastwatch Institution which staffs many former Coastguard lookout stations around the coast. It is part of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, which in itself is an executive agency of the Department for Transport.
History
HM Coastguard was established in 1822. In 1809 the Preventive Water Guard was established, which may be regarded as the immediate ancestor of HM Coastguard. Its primary objective was to prevent smuggling, but it was also responsible for giving assistance to shipwrecks. For this reason, each Water Guard station was issued with Manby's Mortar. In 1821 a committee of inquiry recommended that responsibility for the Preventive Water Guard should be transferred from HM Treasury to the Board of Customs. The Board of Custom and the Board of Excise each had their own long-established preventive forces: shore-based Riding Officers and sea-going Revenue Cruisers. The committee recommended the consolidation of these various related services. The Treasury agreed, and in a Minute dated 15 January 1822 directed that they be placed under the authority of the Board of Customs and named the Coast Guard.The new Coast Guard inherited a number of shore stations and watch houses from its predecessor bodies as well as several coastal vessels, and these provided bases for its operations over the following years. In 1829 the first Coast Guard instructions were published, dealing mainly with discipline and the prevention of smuggling; they also stipulated that when a wreck took place the Coast Guard was responsible for taking all possible action to save lives, taking charge of the vessel and protecting property. In 1831, the Coast Guard took over duties from the Coast Blockade for the Suppression of Smuggling ; this finally gave it authority over the whole of the UK coastline.
In the 1850s, with smuggling on the wane, oversight of the Coast Guard was transferred from the Board of Customs to the Admiralty. In the decades that followed, the Coast Guard began to function more like an auxiliary Naval service, a recruitment ground for future naval personnel. Responsibilities for revenue protection were retained, but hands-on rescue services began to be undertaken more and more by Volunteer Life Brigades and by the lifeboats of the RNLI, with the Coast Guard acting in a support role.
By the start of the twentieth century, there was a growing sense of dissatisfaction with the service expressed both by the Board of Customs and by the Board of Trade. In the wake of the First World War, moves were made to address these deficiencies. In 1923 the Coastguard was re-established as a coastal safety and rescue service, overseen by the Board of Trade. Its skills in maritime communication were recognised, with provision being made for the use of new communication technologies for safety at sea. There was also a renewed determination to recruit, train and co-ordinate volunteer rescue personnel with the establishment in 1931 of a Coastal Life-saving Corps, later renamed the Coastguard Auxiliary Service.
For the rest of the twentieth century, the Coastguard continued to operate primarily out of local shore stations. In 1931 in England there were 193 stations and 339 auxiliary stations; in 1974 there were still 127 stations and 245 auxiliary stations. From the 1960s onwards, though, priorities were changing from maintaining coastal lookouts to provision of co-ordinated search and rescue services. Old watch houses, with their on-site accommodation and annexed boathouses, gave way to new technology-based Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centres, far fewer in number. Efficiency drives in the 1990s made Her Majesty's Coastguard a government executive agency, then in 1998 the Marine Safety Agency and the Coastguard Agency were joined to become the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
The Coastguard Rescue Service
The Coastguard Rescue Service is made up of 352 teams located near the coast in stations around the UK, with the most coastal rescue stations in the UK. The teams are made up of Coastguard Rescue Officers who are volunteers trained to carry out rescues and provide assistance to those in distress on the UK's coastline. There are approximately 3500 CROs and they carry out rope rescue, mud rescue, water rescue and search duties in all weathers and at all times. The teams are paged by the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre or Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre and respond to emergencies. They also assist other authorities such as the Police, Fire and Ambulance with their specialist expertise. The Coastguard Rescue Teams will also provide safety advice to those they rescue and members of the public.After recovering any casualty the CRTs will provide the assistance needed then will transfer them to a place of safety. The teams will also provide support to the lifeboats and SAR helicopters per tasking by the Operations Centres.
Search and rescue
The Coastguard Rescue teams carry out searches of the shoreline which, depending on the team's location, could be urban or remote, beach, mud or cliff. The searches could be for vessels, wreckage, people who have abandoned ship, or missing persons. This is referred to as Lost and Missing Persons Search.Water safety and rescue
Due to the nature of the work carried out by CROs they are trained to be safe when in or near the water. They are trained to be able to carry out rescues in extremely rough conditions and the team will work together to recover the casualty from danger while ensuring that each team member is safe.The training the CRT have will depend on the location of the CRT. All teams are trained in land search methods, water rescue and casualty care.
Mud rescue
Mud rescue is described as the most physically demanding type of rescue there is. Mud rescue technicians walk on the mud using equipment to prevent them getting stuck, and recover casualties. In most cases these are people who have become too tired to continue walking on the mud while taking a shortcut. The CRTs also have rescue equipment to extract people deeply stuck in mud, including inflatable rescue walkways, mud lances, and specialist footwear inspired by ducks' feet.Rope rescue
Rope rescue methods are to recover casualties who have fallen or are stuck on cliffs or difficult to reach areas, be they rural or urban. The teams work together to lower a rope rescue technician who will assess the casualty, provide first aid treatment if necessary and then recover the casualty to safety, before transferring the casualty to the next level of care as required.Casualty Care (CERCC)
Each team member receives extensive casualty care training that goes much further than just basic first aid, the course known as CERCC is taught by a team of trainers locally around the coast with regular role play training and evaluation. Each CRO is required to have his/her CERCC qualification re-validated every three years.The HMCG CERCC qualification is bench marked at Level D of the PHEM framework from the Faculty of Pre-Hospital Care, and is also equivalent in syllabus content to the First Response Emergency Care Level 3 Certificate level.
In 2017 the CERCC course was updated to reflect and include latest research and guidance such as implementation of the 2015 European Council Resuscitation Guidelines, 2017 JRCALC Guidelines and the British Thoracic Society Oxygen Guidelines. Each frontline Coastguard Rescue Vehicle carries a fully stocked Coastguard Emergency Responder Bag which includes a first aid kit, pelvic splint, frac straps, airways set, trauma dressings, airway suction kit and bag, and valve and mask set.
In 2022 HM Coastguard provided each operational team with a Samaritan 500p Automated External Defibrillator.