Coastguards can't start a rescue until they fill out a health and safety assessment .

Coastguards have been ordered to fill in a health and safety questionnaire before they can respond to calls for help. All
400 of Britain's rescue units have been told that before they travel to
an accident scene they must complete a 'vehicle pre-journey risk
assessment'. It is feared lives may be lost as vital minutes
could be taken up with the assessments just as rescuers are preparing
their response to emergency callouts. Under the new rules, the
teams have to take the time to answer four questions on the type of
rescue and journey they are about to undertake.



Lives could be lost in the vital minutes that coastguard rescuers spend filling out risk assessment forms After
first filling out the date and time, the lead rescuer must outline the
'reason for journey' and detail any risks the team may encounter during
the rescue, including both current and forecast weather conditions. The
form then demands an account of any 'actions taken to mitigate risk'
before the leader can fill in a 'yes' or 'no' as to whether the risk is
'acceptable'. The forms have caused outrage among Britain's
3,200 coastguard rescuers, who are furious after a string of health and
safety rulings recently issued by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

Yesterday, one coastguard said: 'When we were first told about this, we simply couldn't believe it. 'When we get a call asking us to go out and rescue someone, we need to go there without delay. 'But they are asking us to waste time in the office filling out this stupid form. 'Also, none of us really knows what we are realistically meant to fill in. 'I mean, how are we meant to know what risks there might be before we get there? 'And
do they expect us to get a full weather forecast before we go out? Do
they really want us to find out what the traffic conditions will be? 'It's ridiculous. All we want to do is save lives. 'The
impression we get is that the bosses are doing everything they can to
make sure their hands are legally clean if there is any kind of
problem.' The pre-journey risk assessment form is designed for
when coastguards use their specially-equipped Land Rovers for land
rescues. Rescues by boat are not affected. It is just the
latest in a series of bizarre health and safety rulings to affect the
agency, which is a branch of the Department for Transport. In
November last year, coastguards were told that they can no longer use
flares during night-time rescue missions as they could 'cause
considerable injury'. Even though the flares light up a large
area and are considered essential for finding people at night, the
Agency told its teams that they should use torches instead. In
August, a three-man coastguard crew from Devon were disciplined because
they rescued a 13-year-old girl using a boat that had not been passed
by health and safety officials. The girl had been only 150 yards out at sea. Coastguards
patrol the entire length of the UK's 10,200 miles of coastline in
conjunction with the lifeboatmen from the Royal National Lifeboat
Institution. Most coastguards work full time in other jobs but carry pagers to alert them when they are needed. They are paid for the time they spend undertaking rescue missions. Yesterday,
a spokesman for the MCA insisted that filling in the questionnaire does
not cause any delay as it 'can be done at the same time as the rest of
the team prepare equipment.' The spokesman said the pre-journey risk assessment had been introduced to protect the coastguards' safety.



This has got out of hand "big time" . I have had many discussions with my tutors on these stupid rules they take a dim view on my thoughts , this is all to do with the blame culture we have seemed to have adopted . IMO there is an easy way around this it is to do a generic "Risk Assessment" which would cover most of the tasks they undertake with a follow up assessment on return. Lets just hope no one dies waiting for them !