Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what coastguard personnel responded to the incident off Portobello beach in Edinburgh in the early hours of 15 May 2016.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Coastguard Rescue Teams (CRT) from Fisherrow and Queensferry were tasked to respond to the incident off Portobello beach in Edinburgh in the early hours of 15 May 2016.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many coastguard rescue (a) employees and (b) volunteers cover Scotland.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The number of Coastguard rescue (a) employees and (b) volunteers that cover Scotland are as follows:
(A) Employees
HM Coastguards National Network enables the National Maritime Operations Centre (NMOC) and 9 Coastguard Operations Centres (CGOC) to coordinate any incident anywhere around the UK coast. Workload is therefore managed on a national basis enabling national capability and resource to be available to any incident. There are 314 full time equivalent Coastguard posts within the national network of which 69 are based at CGOCs located in Scotland (Aberdeen, Shetland and Stornoway).
There are 37 full time equivalent Coastguard posts that are responsible for the management, training and oversight of the volunteer Coastguard Rescue Teams that cover Scotland.
(B) Volunteers
There is an establishment of 1,226 volunteer Coastguard Rescue Officers that cover Scotland.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many coastguard search and rescue helicopters are available for operations in Scotland.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
There are four Her Majesty’s Coastguard search and rescue (SAR) helicopter bases in Scotland, with a SAR helicopter operating at each base 24 hours a day. The speed and range of the aircraft means that HM Coastguard has the ability to surge up to five Coastguard SAR helicopters to a single incident in Scotland, should it be necessary to do so.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the coastguard response time was to the incident off Portobello in Edinburgh in the early hours of 15 May 2016.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
HM Coastguard were notified by the Scottish Ambulance Service of two persons in the water off Portobello in Edinburgh at 0237 GMT on 15 May 2016. The Coastguard Rescue Teams from Fisherrow and Queensferry were tasked at 0241 GMT and were on scene at 0257 GMT. The two persons in the water were recovered to dry land by the Police at 0304 GMT.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the average response time is for coastguard personnel on emergency callouts; and what the longest response times were in each of the last five years.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Each incident involving a Coastguard Rescue Team (CRT) is different in its context given geography, terrain, weather conditions, prevailing traffic conditions and the availability of individual volunteer Coastguard Rescue Officers and other responders. Against that background the Maritime and Coastguard Agency does not collate or maintain data in respect of cumulative response times either locally or nationally. However it can provide specific response times for specific incidents.
In a typical year there are between 12,000 and 14,000 incidents to which a CRT will be required to respond.