Examination of Witnesses (Questions 340-351)
CAPTAIN STEPHEN
BLIGH AND
MR JOHN
ASTBURY
2 MARCH 2005
Q340 Mrs Ellman: Is that because you
are satisfied with what you have got?
Captain Bligh: Any chief executive
of an agency would always like more money and no doubt I would
be able to spend it on various things across the Agency, but,
at the moment, with what we are asked to deliver, we have those
resources.
Q341 Mrs Ellman: You do not see it in
your role to ask for more, you are satisfied you can do everything
you need to do?
Captain Bligh: When the Spending
Reviews come forward we put forward our proposals. In the Treasury's
SR04, we put forward our views of the money we thought was necessary
to develop some areas. Then we receive our allocation and manage
that accordingly.
Q342 Mrs Ellman: Have you made any assessment
of how many more people who will be involved in high-risk activities
will require assistance?
Captain Bligh: At the moment,
there is anecdotal evidence that everybody says there are more
people involved in leisure pursuits, there are more people involved
in the high-risk activities. We have a study underway, where we
are doing an omnibus survey, and that data will be ready in April/May
time. Early indications are that about 11.5 million take part
in maritime leisure activities. We need now to break that down
into what those individual activities are, because we are taking
the whole spectrum of our coastal interface, so that is everything
from cliff-walking to jet-skiing, and then we need to break that
down into the individual components. What it will not give us
is the frequency, because if you are looking at the frequency
of this activity we have done research through tourist board websites
and other information to try to get this, and they talk about
figures ranging between 35 million and 45 million people taking
part in activities in the coastal community. What we are trying
to do at the moment is identify the activities and then the average
number of people and maybe tackle frequency at a later date.
Q343 Mrs Ellman: Do you intend to close
any more Rescue Co-ordination Centres?
Captain Bligh: No. This is an
old chestnut.
Q344 Mrs Ellman: Why are you pairing?
Captain Bligh: What we are trying
to do is prove technology, that we have the facility. What we
are trying to do is ensure that, as we have talked about before,
some stations can assist their flank station in a major incident
and what we need to do is prove that technology will work. The
trial which is going on between Aberdeen and Forth, again, I am
surprised, because it was discussed with the PCS, they were involved
in the discussion about that particular trial, and it is a trial,
it is no more and no less than that at the moment, and we are
trying whether the system will work.
Q345 Mrs Ellman: Does that mean you are
ruling out more closures?
Captain Bligh: Yes.
Mr Astbury: Actually, the benefit
of pairing is to release resources for prevention activity. At
the moment, most of the Coastguard resources are locked into Co-ordination
Centres, providing a cure. If we had partnerships then it would
be possible, through that technology, to release resources to
go on the ground to carry out more prevention. It is not a closure
of a centre, it is the utilisation of centres to release resources
so we are benefiting from the technology to stop people being
locked into one particular type of silo. It comes back to Captain
Bligh's point about resources. The question is, how we can best
use the resources, first, before we go asking for more, and technology
I think could help in that way.
Q346 Mrs Ellman: What is the most important
recommendation you would make about the future of Search and Rescue
services?
Captain Bligh: At the moment,
the major item on the horizon is the helicopter harmonisation
project. The Maritime Rescue from the RNLI, that area of our service,
is second to none and we receive an excellent service from that.
Obviously, it has been mentioned, the airframes which presently
are used for Search and Rescue are coming towards the end of their
operational life. We need to move forward with that project so
that we are not left in a position of trying to keep old airframes
going, once they have gone beyond their operational life, while
we are still trying to nail the decision on what the future of
the helicopter rescue service around the UK looks like.
Q347 Mrs Ellman: Do you have any thoughts
on the future structure of the service?
Captain Bligh: I think the present
structure that we have is more than adequate. I do not believe
we are talking about changes in structure of the organisation.
As I say, the auxiliary service delivers what we need of it at
the moment. Our helicopters are a critical part of our delivery
and we need to manage that area of the business. For the rest
of it, we are where we are at the moment.
Mrs Ellman: Thank you.
Q348 Clive Efford: On the Forth Rescue
Centre, if there is an emergency, say, a fire or something, and
one centre is taken out and the other is not there any more, are
you confident that you have got cover in those circumstances?
Mr Astbury: Yes. Frankly, we have
got belt and braces and belt and braces in our organisation, which
is why we were able to conduct the communications in Carlisle
when the police airwave system collapsed. We have a network of
131 remote radio sites.
Q349 Chairman: They have not always worked
very well, have they, Mr Astbury?
Mr Astbury: Yes, they have.
Q350 Chairman: You think your Vision
system is working perfectly well, do you not?
Mr Astbury: The radio is one issue.
The Vision is the replacement for the paperwork in the ops room.
Q351 Chairman: Yes, but you have got
both these systems operating. You are quite happy about radio
and Vision and the other systems all working?
Mr Astbury: The maintenance down-time
of our radio system last year, in 2004, was less than five days,
which is 99.92% efficiency; so, yes, I am extremely happy with
the communications infrastructure.
Chairman: Saved by the bell, I think,
Mr Astbury. Thank you both very much for your evidence and for
your attendance here today. The Committee is suspended for a division
in the House.
The Committee suspended from 4.41 pm to
4.51 pm for a division in the House.
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