The International Example

The United States of America has what is probably the biggest, best known and longest established Coast Guard in the world. The USCG is directly descended from the revenue cutter service, founded in 1790, which was merged with the life-saving service to form the United States Coast Guard in 1915. The USCG is a military service. Members carry military rank and many of its ships are armed.

The early history of the Swedish Coastguard closely mirrors that of the UK Coastguard, developing from "beach riders" (similar to the UK riding officers) into the Coastguard of today. The difference is that Sweden kept its Coastguard and expanded it, while the UK's was broken up.

In 1987, the Dutch Coastguard (Kustwacht) was formed by a merger of various Police, Customs and Ministry of Transport and Public works vessels into one fleet. This fleet has responsibility for combating smugglers, fishery protection and search and rescue, in conjunction with the Dutch lifeboat service (their equivalent of the RNLI). Could the Dutch Coastguard be a model for a reunited UK Coastguard?

In 1999 a study was undertaken by the Malaysian government revealed that maritime law enforcement was not effective because too many agencies were involved, resulting in overlapping functions, overlapping jurisdiction, and uneconomical use of resources. This study resulted in the formation of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency in 2004. The Malaysian experience again shows us the benefits of having one agency to enforce maritime laws and carry out search and rescue.

The Taiwan Government established the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) on January 28, 2000, integrating the Coast Guard Command (formerly under the Ministry of Defense), the Marine Police Bureau (formerly under the National Police Administration, Ministry of Interior), and several cutters from the Taiwan Directorate General of Customs, Ministry of Finance. This merger mirrors the kind of integration I am proposing for the UK Coastguard.