Air/Sea Rescue (UK) to Privatise. Call Premium Rate for Rescue ?

**Yorkshireman** · April 17, 2006, 11:01 AM

It seems that Britains coastal air/sea rescue service is to be privatised under new proposals from the government. The role normally fulfilled by the highly trained men of the Royal Navy and Royal Airforce will be "outsourced" to a possibley foriegn company in the very near future.

Will this mean a reduction in cover for our coastline and territorial waters due to the needs of private business to balance the books and return a profit ?

Will this mean a reduction in the skill's of the crews, undergoing training that cannot match the armed forces ?

This seem's inconcievable to me, but then again we are an island nation that expects the RNLI (lifeboats) to fund itself through donations, jumble sales and flag days.

So now, when your drifting in your rubber dinghy off Flamborough Head, waiting for the sound of a Sea King helicopter to arrive like the cavalry, just better hope that the service has'nt been "downsized" to make it " more efficient."

NEWS STORY CLICK HERE

**Libertine** · April 17, 2006, 11:08 AM

Oh dear....

I can't really say much more than that.

**Custor** · April 17, 2006, 11:43 AM

Private enterprise and the market economy. Maybe we can ring 999 or 118-999 for a more 'efficient' service?
Only thing you an gauruntee that wont be privatised is the MPs. They'll sell everyone else down the river.

**David Deas** · April 17, 2006, 11:59 AM

They would still get help in order to ensure their services are adequate.

**Aristophanes** · April 17, 2006, 12:17 PM

I hate it when governments 'privatize' by giving an ostensibly 'private' company a monopoly or a charter: it provides none of the benefits of free markets, and all the worst consequences of private monopoly. I'd take government control over private monopoly any day: at least the notion of free markets isn't damaged by the former.

And now everybody will say 'private control is bad; look what happened when the UK's government privatized air and sea rescue...' without properly considering context.

**Elu Barcino** · April 17, 2006, 01:12 PM

This is just ridiculous. People's LIVES depend on decisions like these.

**Denny Crane!** · April 17, 2006, 01:14 PM

I don't know? The lifeboat services have been struggling for such a long time and facing closure. Maybe this has been done for a reason, it may well help because so far it is a service in trouble and lets face it Labour has no money to put into the service and when they do pour money into something the cost is high and the results negligble.

Peter

**Yorkshireman** · April 17, 2006, 01:35 PM

The air/sea rescue service is operated by the armed force's from their base's, it's primary function is to support the Royal Navy, but obviously they spend most of their time rescueing civilians. Apparently the old work horse Sea King helicopters are reacing the end of their service and the government does'nt want to fork out for a new model. You'd think we could afford to spend money on a few helicopter's. I just can't believe that we're going to put one of our emergencey services into private hands, whats next, police ?, fire service ? I know who I'd rather put my faith in to find me and pull me out of the sea, the same people who've always done it, the Royal Navy.

**Denny Crane!** · April 17, 2006, 01:39 PM

So who operates the lifeboats service?

PEter

**Yorkshireman** · April 17, 2006, 01:56 PM

Originally Posted by cowen70

So who operates the lifeboats service?

PEter

Thats independant, it survives solely on public donations and support. Most lifeboat men are just part-time unpaid volunteers, mainly fishermen.

**Denny Crane!** · April 17, 2006, 02:05 PM

Originally Posted by Yorkshireman

Thats independant, it survives solely on public donations and support. Most lifeboat men are just part-time unpaid volunteers, mainly fishermen.

Ah right my bad.

I agree in theory about teh evils of privatisation but a government which has raised tax revenue by £219 billion yet still struggles for money, has pumped billions into infrastructure only for it to get worse not better.

Under these conditions I go for privatisation not government control (which I think will be labour for at least another term).

Peter

**imb39** · April 17, 2006, 01:41 PM

I hope the government sets reasonable targets for these operators...

**Harlanite** · April 17, 2006, 01:41 PM

That's shocking. Privatization gone mad...

**Dirty Harry** · April 17, 2006, 04:32 PM

Do you guys even know how this kind of thing works? Lets say the govt is spending 1 billion now, then they'll put out 1 billion worth of contracts to private companies to do this. It doesn't mean going cheap unless the govt itself goes cheap (decides to put out only 500 million). it doesn't mean a monopoly either, each coastal jurisdiction could be up for a seperate bid meaning you will ideally have seperate companies competing. As long as they spend the same and put strict requirements and oversight on the companies to prevent unscrupulous companies (which would be relatively no worse than the lazy/incompetant govt bureaucrats today), they'll be getting more bang for their buck, as in better services for the same cost.

I can't think of any private corporations that are run as poorly and incompetantly as a govt, so as far as I'm concerned, Id much rather have private companies responsible for this sort of thing.

**Sétanta** · April 17, 2006, 05:01 PM

This is like Privatising the national jail system

Poor you I must say

**Sidus Preclarum** · April 18, 2006, 05:28 AM

If the british rescuers take on the habits of the british rail, you guys are sooo screwed .

**the Black Prince** · April 18, 2006, 04:01 PM

first of all i would like to point out that the majority of Sea Rescues carried out in UK waters are carried out by the volunteer seamen of the charity Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) which runs all of britains all weather rescue boats and the majority of our in-shore rescue boats.

the Royal Navy do not provide a dedicated rescue service. any and all distress calls picked up by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) routinely check for royal naval presence from the Fisheries Protection Squadron and any other local warships, but the navy has no craft kept on dedicated rescue readiness.

the only military assets are the RAF Search and Rescue helicopters, of the traditional bright yellow livery and a squadron of FAA rescue copters.

the rest of rescue work is provided by HM Coastguards, a branch of the MCA that have a variety of roles from beach patrol and rescue in their blue and yellow landrovers to in-shore rescue, provision of deep ocean tugs, and the occasional helicopter. these units are staff by a mix of professional coastguards and volunteers

all rescue command and control is co-ordinated by MCA regional and district control centres staffed by professional staff.

removing the dedicated military elements of our coastal rescue services would not affect the majority of rescue efforts made by crews of the RNLI and HM Coastguards. all they are talking about is replacing are the military and MCA rescue helicopters.
note that this is the scotsman who published this
why?
because the military operate 2 dedicated SaR bases in scotland, both of which would close if the military no longer provided a dedicated SaR service.

why the talks?
all SaR ops run by the military use Sea King helicopters. general use of these helicopters within both the RAF and FAA is being phased out, with naval sea kings being replaced by the Merlin, or by specvialist sea kings (like Sea King Early Warning and Control aircraft). limited numbers of Merlins have been ordered, and there really is no plan to replace the aging Sea King right now, as the MoD never got its act together on the future multirole transport rotary program

and Mudd, there are already a number of contracted out privately run prisons in the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) that annexed and took over from HM Prison Service and the Probation Service last year