Her Majesty's Coastguard - Role

Role

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) is an executive agency responsible throughout the UK for implementing the Government’s maritime safety policy. That includes co-ordinating search and rescue at sea through Her Majesty’s Coastguard, checking that ships meet UK and international safety rules and preventing coastal pollution.

Typical emergencies to which the Coastguard is summoned include:

• Sailboarders too exhausted to reach the shore;
• Walkers and animals who slip from cliff paths;
• Boats losing rudder control;
• Crew stranded aboard a container ship battered by freak waves;
• Medical emergencies;
• Incidents involving oil rigs (such as fire);
• Suicide victims that have jumped from cliffs or bridges;
• Missing adults and children around the cliffs or beach area;
• Broken Down Merchant Vessels in British waters;
• Evacuating injured persons at sea;
• Locating missing persons and vessels at sea;
• Fires on board Merchant vessels;
• Groundings;
• Collisions at sea;

Ships in distress or the public reporting an accident should make a Mayday call on MF radio, marine VHF radio channel 16, or by dialling 999 or 112 on a telephone. The Coastguard continuously monitors all the maritime distress frequencies (including the international VHF distress frequency 156.8 MHz) and has access to Satellite based monitoring systems. The Coastguard then co-ordinates the emergency response. This normally involves requesting the launch of a local RNLI lifeboat (the RNLI being an independent organization), launching an independent lifeboat, deploying a local Coastguard unit, or a search and rescue helicopter. On occasions, the Coastguard has called on warships of the Royal Navy to assist with incidents. Depending on the circumstances of each incident, the Coastguard may also arrange for other emergency services to be deployed to the incident or to meet other units returning from the incident, for example in the case of a medical emergency. A full list of 'Declared Assets' is below:

• HM Coastguard's own CRO (Coastguard Rescue Officers) 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

Declared Assets are Facilities that have given a declaration to the Coastguard of a certain level of availability or training. Other assets that may be tasked to assist with any incident include; Mountain Rescue, Military Police, The Fire and Rescue Service and Volunteer Lifeguards. In addition, various 'Memorandums of Understanding' exist between the Coastguard and other Emergency Services to establish priority when working in each other's areas. For example, police officers needing to carry out a search of the shoreline.

The Coastguard has seven rescue helicopters based around the United Kingdom (at Stornoway Airport, Sumburgh Airport, Lee-on-Solent, Portland). The Coastguard also has use of other Air-Sea Rescue helicopters provided by the Royal Navy, Royal Air Force, United States Air Force and the Irish Coast Guard.