South West

The Maritime & Coastguard Agency keeps the provision of Search and Rescue services around the UK coast under continuous review, as part of its commitment to maintaining and improving safety standards.

The current review of the service provided by the Agency's General Purpose Boats (GPB) around the UK is a part of this ongoing process. As part of this review, all 5 GPBs were surveyed to assess both the general seaworthiness of the vessel and their fitness for purpose. For Coastguard operations, these boats are not front line units.

The surveys on the Hope Cove GPB showed that, while the vessel could be made generally seaworthy (subject to a number of repairs), as a General Purpose Boat, it was NOT suitable for Coastguard operations - not least because the vessel has insufficient freeboard1 to be safe for use in all circumstances and could, therefore, be swamped during a rescue operation.

Personal Safety Equipment being used by the crew was found not to meet current safety requirements.

Following the surveys, the crew of the Hope Cove GPB took it upon themselves to get the repairs to the vessel carried out. Unfortunately, the repairs were not adequately supervised and so, because of the MCA's duty of care to the crew, the vessel has been withdrawn from service until it has been re-surveyed to ensure that the repairs meet the required standards for GPBs.

This survey has already been arranged for Thursday 21st August (tomorrow) and will be carried out by an independent surveyor in consultation with MCA staff.

Subject to a satisfactory survey on Thursday it is anticipated that the boat will be returned to offer a beach rescue capability at Hope Cove and will be able to return to service, albeit with strict safety restrictions regarding its use.

Meanwhile, the review of the service provided by the Agency's GPBs is continuing.

1 The Freeboard is the lowest point where water can enter a boat.

Press releases and further information about the Agency is available on the Web at http://www.mcga.gov.uk

Client ref 268/08

COI ref 164749P