page_title: Her Majesty's Coastguard
section_title: Role and responsibilities
hierarchical_section_title: Her Majesty's Coastguard / Role and responsibilities
caption_attribution_description: Her Majesty's Coastguard land vehicles (Toyota Hi-Lux)
context_page_description: Her Majesty's Coastguard is a 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. It is also responsible for land based search and rescue helicopter operations from 2015.
  The chief executive of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency is Brian Johnson. Operational control of the service is the responsibility of the Director of HM Coastguard, Claire Hughes.
  Her Majesty's Coastguard is not a military force nor law enforcement agency, with coastal defence being the responsibility of the Royal Navy, law enforcement being the responsibility of the local territorial police force and maritime border control being the responsibility of Border Force. However, the organisation is a uniformed service.
context_section_description: The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) is an  executive agency responsible throughout Britain for implementing the Government's maritime safety policy. That includes initiating and co-ordinating search and rescue at sea or on the coast through Her Majesty's Coastguard, checking that ships meet British and international safety rules and preventing coastal pollution.
  Typical emergencies to which the Coastguard is summoned include:
  Persons in difficulties in the water;
  Persons in difficulties on the coastline;
  Pleasure craft with problems;
  Medical emergencies on vessels, installations or offshore islands;
  Incidents involving oil installations;
  Persons threatening or attempting suicide on the coast or bridges over estuaries;
  Missing persons on the coast;
  Merchant vessels with problems;
  Evacuating injured or ill persons at sea;
  Groundings;
  Collisions at sea;
  Reports of suspected Ordnance.
  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 CGOCs continuously monitor all the maritime distress frequencies (including the international VHF distress frequency 156.8 MHz) and have access to satellite based monitoring systems. The Coastguard CGOC 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 Rescue Team, or a Search and Rescue helicopter, making broadcasts and requesting assistance from vessels in the area. Depending on the circumstances of each incident, the Coastguard CGOC may also request 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 list of common '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 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 ten rescue helicopters based around the United Kingdom (at Stornoway Airport, Sumburgh Airport, Prestwick, Inverness Airport, Caernarfon Airport, Humberside, St Athan, Lydd, Newquay Airport, Lee-on-Solent).
caption: Typical Coastguard vehicles and livery at Tenby
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