Emergency Services & Partners - HM Coastguard
 H.M.
Coastguard is responsible for the initiation and co-ordination
of civil maritime Search and Rescue within the United Kingdom 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.
Responsibility for the safeguarding of life at sea, in the estuaries
of the Tyne and Wear, as well as off-shore, rests with HM Coastguard,
situated at Bridlington.
The Humber Maritime Rescue Sub-Centre maintains a 24 hour watch
system and is responsible for co-ordinating Search and Rescue measures
for all civil maritime distress.
The Eastern Region of the Maritime Coastguard Agency (MCA) maintains
a Marine Emergency Plan to address off-shore emergencies.
There is a Memorandum of Understanding between HM Coastguard and
Northumbria Police which defines the responsibilities applying to
the littoral area of the coastline.
Oil Pollution
 The
Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) is the competent U.K. authority
responsible for responding to pollution from shipping and offshore
installations. The MCA is regularly called upon to respond to a
wide range of maritime incidents and have developed a comprehensive
response procedure to deal with any emergency at sea that causes
pollution, or threatens to cause pollution.
The “National Contingency Plan for Marine Pollution from Shipping
and Offshore Installations” (NCP) was published in January
2000 and sets out revised command and control procedures for incident
response following Lord Donaldson’s Review of Salvage and
Intervention and their Command and Control. These procedures have
built-in thresholds to allow for flexibility of response to different
degrees of incident.
Tyne and Wear EPU write and maintain, on behalf of the District
Oil Pollution Officers (DOPO's) of our Maritime constituent districts
a non-statutory Oil Spill Countermeasure Plan, detailing the procedural
response to such an incident by the Local Authorities, working closely
with the MCA, Oil Industry, Environmental Interest agencies and
central Government.
Council Officers are
also trained in Counter-Pollution response through exercises and
training run by the MCA.
For more information please go to the Maritime and Coastguard website at: www.mcga.gov.uk
|
