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.

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.