Equipment and techniques development

HMCG recognises the importance of liaising with SAR partners in the UK and abroad and will continue to do so. HMCG meets monthly with the RNLI and has bilateral meetings with international coastal partners such as the French, Netherlands, Japan, South Korea, Turkey, Italy, Norway, US Coastguard and Canada. This is alongside its participation in forums such as: • North Atlantic Coastguard Forum - Annually • Global Coastguard Summit (8 years old) - Biannually • EU Coastguard Forum - ad hoc • Mass Rescue Overseas Territories forum - Annually • ASEAN CG Forum - Annually • North Atlantic MRCC meeting - Annually • Arctic CG SAR Forum – Biannually • International Maritime Rescue Federation (IMRF) - Annually • IMO: Navigations Comms SAR Meetings - Annually • Anglo-French Accident Technical Group (including Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey, and Belgium) Liaising with SAR partners in the UK and abroad has resulted in the sharing of experiences and lessons learned as well as updating international best practices. Examples include: • Learning from international partners, for example, lessons learned and experiences from Mass Rescue Operations (Viking Sky) were shared at the North Atlantic Coast Guard Forum Search and Rescue Working Group and implemented in mass rescue operation training for British Overseas Territories. • HMCG sharing its experience and expertise in SAR in windfarms, submarine, and submersible rescue, and psychological first aid at the ICAO-IMO Joint Working Group on the Harmonization on Aeronautical and Maritime Search and Rescue.

The Department for Transport published its interim response to the Cranston Inquiry in July 2026, which included this updates against this recommendation. This update noted that many of the recommendations - including this one - have been marked as complete but are necessarily based on an on-going approach, rather than having a single end point. The Department (DfT), the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), and His Majesty’s Coastguard (HMCG) are committed to on-going learning and improvement, and will regularly review processes and practices, learning from best practice, to ensure that they are fit to meet the evolving challenges of maritime search and rescue (SAR). Due to the operational and ongoing nature of these recommendations, the MCA has established an internal process of monitoring, verifying and reporting against recommendations that are its responsibility, noting that many recommendations require an on-going approach rather than reaching a single, fixed point.