Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps the Maritime and Coastguard Agency is taking to retain the specialist knowledge, skills and experience of staff in those maritime rescue co-ordination centres scheduled to close.

The new coastguard structure keeps one Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in each of the current pairing arrangement as a Coastguard Operations Centre. This retains specialist knowledge, maintained through MRCC pairing since 2006, in the new structure. HM Coastguard are also proactively incorporating appropriate local information into its IT systems which will be available, in a standard format, to all watch-keepers across the whole UK network.

The rigorous new training regime HM Coastguard are implementing ensures that both new and existing Coastguards are competent to conduct the new national concept of operations.