Survivability advice to persons in distress
Cranston Inquiry · The Cranston Inquiry Report · Issued 5 February 2026 · Addressed to: HM Coastguard
Source — verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation
HM Coastguard should amend its existing policies to incorporate the need to provide more comprehensive advice about survivability to people in distress at sea.
Cranston Inquiry, The Cranston Inquiry Report · 5 Feb 2026 Source PDF →
Published evidence summary
Publicly available evidence relating to this recommendation:
Sources
How was this evidence gathered?
Response — verbatim from government
●HM Coastguard
HMCG Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) were reviewed and updated in May 2024, providing assurance that they align to internationally recognised requirements contained within the IMO’s IAMSAR Manual. The standard operating procedure covers factors that may affect survivability, predicting survival times, information and characteristics on hypothermia and heat stress. These are available to staff through an online management system, which hosts operational detail, procedure, process, and training content. This information is easily accessible, and the information is shared and cascaded across teams for consistency. SOPs are regularly reviewed and updated on an ongoing basis to keep up to date with both internal and international developments, lessons learned and international best practice and guidance. For example, regular operation standards and performance reviews and operational learning reviews help to ensure that SOPs and guidance remain up to date. When updates are made to a SOP these are listed in an operational update message for officers to see on the front page of the Coastguard Information Portal, alerting them to the update. Updates are reflected in CPD and exercises, as well as being highlighted through participation in reviews and the reports from these.
HM Coastguard · 16 Jul 2026 Written response →
Evidence trail — what's actually happened since
No published activity has been recorded against this recommendation yet.
Each entry above links to a primary source — gov.uk written statement, consultation response document, or inspection report. The Index does not characterise government intent; it tracks what has been published.
How this page is built
Source and Response are verbatim from primary documents. The Evidence trail records published activity since — written statements, consultation outcomes, inspection findings, parliamentary references. The Index does not paraphrase or characterise intent; it tracks what has been published. Where the evidence is the absence of action (a missed deadline, a slipped timetable), that absence is documented from primary sources rather than inferred.
This recommendation's data is verified periodically against primary sources. The Index is monitored for staleness weekly.