Joint training exercises plan

The most recent joint exercise involving all participants simultaneously was at Dover MRCC on 7 December 2023. Representatives from French Coast Guard and SNSM (the French lifeboat service) were present, alongside UK Border Force and the RNLI. Since then, HMCG has participated in monthly meetings with the RNLI and Border Force (now Border Security Command) and 6-monthly meetings with the French Coastguard, at which tactics, techniques and procedures are discussed so that best practices can be shared. This culminates each year in the live Mass Person in Water Exercises hosted by the RNLI, where the last live play exercise occurred on 10 September 2025. The most recent Table-Top Exercise took place at the end of March 2026. Going forward there will be two table-top exercises each year. Key internal stakeholders and external partners will participate, including French authorities, RNLI, HMCG Aviation, JRCC, and Network Commanders. The next live exercise is planned to take place in October 2026.

The Department for Transport published its interim response to the Cranston Inquiry in July 2026, which included 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.