Andy McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy McDonald on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent estimate has been made of the (a) coastguard and (b) lifeguard capacity on UK (i) beaches and (ii) coastal waters.

Mr John Hayes

Her Majesty’s Coastguard’s Volunteer Coastguard Rescue Teams are appropriately trained and so can be deployed for any incident on beaches or at the coast. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency continually monitors the local provision of this capability.

Safety at public beaches, and specifically the provision of lifeguarding services, is generally the responsibility of the local authority, who carry out risk assessments to determine appropriate safety measures.