Recommendation CR16: Mass rescue operation plan
From The Cranston Inquiry Report, published 5 February 2026.
Recommendation
HM Coastguard should develop a mass rescue operation plan that includes command and control, co-ordination, external stakeholders, medical and law enforcement roles, and public and external affairs.
In brief (written by this site)
The Inquiry asked HM Coastguard to develop a detailed mass rescue operation plan. In October 2026, the Cabinet Office reported that this recommendation has been marked as complete under an ongoing approach, with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) establishing internal processes to monitor and verify progress (Cabinet Office, Oct 2026). The Department for Transport had stated in July 2026 that the plan was refreshed in April 2026 to align with international guidance, covering incident command and stakeholder roles, though medical, law enforcement, and public affairs aspects were not mentioned (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 refreshed its Mass Rescue Operations Plan in April 2026 (introduced in 2017 and previously amended in 2018 and 2021). It has been updated to ensure continued alignment with IAMSAR and internationally recognised documents such as the IMO COMSAR/Circ.31 - Guidance for Mass Rescue Operations (MROs) and to reflect the newly published International Mass Rescue Federation’s Mass Rescue Operations Guidance. The plan covers all aspects of a HMCG-coordinated mass-rescue response, including incident command and stakeholder roles. The plan, together with relevant procedures and documents, is routinely reviewed after each training exercise.
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 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)
Site note: The dashboard gives each recommendation its own cell. The cells for recommendations 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 15 and 16 carry the same words, so the same passage is recorded on each.
Responsible bodies
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- Department for Transport
Response - Cabinet Office
Delivery statement