Recommendation CR10: Equipment and techniques development
From The Cranston Inquiry Report, published 5 February 2026.
Recommendation
HM Coastguard must continue to liaise with search and rescue partners in the UK and abroad to identify opportunities for the development or deployment of equipment and techniques to assist in search and rescue operations.
In brief (written by this site)
The Inquiry asked HM Coastguard to liaise with partners on rescue equipment and techniques. The Cabinet Office reported in an October 2026 update that the recommendation had been marked as complete on an ongoing basis, adding that the Maritime and Coastguard Agency had established an internal process to monitor and verify progress (Cabinet Office, Oct 2026). In July 2026, the Department for Transport stated that the coastguard was holding monthly meetings with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution alongside bilateral discussions and multilateral forums with international partners to share operational lessons (Department for Transport response, Jul 2026).
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 16 Oct 2026. The record below is the sources' own words.
Government response
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.
How this response relates to the recommendation
Site note: Cranston Inquiry Report: Interim Response (CP 1635), presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Transport in July 2026. The words are the Department for Transport's. The paper describes HM Coastguard, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the Marine Accident Investigation Branch in the third person ("HMCG recognises ..."), so the site files each passage under the Department, not under the body the recommendation is addressed to.
Delivery
Cabinet Office says completed (5 October 2026)
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.
From: Cranston Inquiry Recommendations Dashboard, October 2026 (data file)
Responsible bodies
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- Department for Transport
Response - Cabinet Office
Delivery statement