Coastguard's decision to stop paying brave volunteers is dangerous and cannot stand – Alistair Carmichael

Members of a Coastguard Rescue Team in Brechin during serious floods in 2023 (Picture: Andrew Milligan) | PA

How much money would you have to be offered to throw yourself into a dangerous situation at sea? £1,000? £10,000? More? I suspect that most of us would not start that conversation at £11 an hour – and yet that is the going rate of remuneration for Coastguard volunteers up and down our coastline, who work in some of the most dangerous conditions imaginable to protect lives at sea.

Or at least, it was. As of this week, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency has determined that this modest degree of recognition is no longer acceptable and will no longer be paid – which is why I am now challenging them to reverse this dangerous decision.

Volunteer officers make up the bulk of the Coastguard Rescue Service. Under existing rules, they are given the princely sum of around £11 an hour for attending incidents and training exercises. The MCA, however, is changing these rules following a Court of Appeal judgment earlier this year, which classed responders as “workers” while they were carrying out their duties.

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An essential service

As a former lawyer, I am not deaf to the consequences of the verdict which led to this decision. Even so I cannot agree that this new policy is in the best interests of either the Coastguard as a national service, or people across the United Kingdom.

The Coastguard is an integral part of our emergency services in the Northern Isles, no less than ambulance and police services are anywhere else in the country. Even this week as the news of the cut to remuneration was confirmed, the Coastguard station in Lerwick reported that they had saved another life in danger.

Coastal communities – particularly those employed in the fishing and energy sectors, or indeed anyone else who works or travels by sea – know all too well the essential role of the Coastguard and its workers.

Those payments matter. They matter as a recognition of the dangerous and important work that volunteers do. They also matter on a practical level, as a way to make such volunteering – which takes up time and energy which could be spent on other, paid work – financially viable for those who do it. It is pennies to pounds for the value of the service that they give.

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A matter of urgency

Cutting such remuneration is certain to undermine morale amongst local crews (and indeed I am already hearing the same from people across the coastguard community). It will harm the future recruitment of volunteers, and could even risk causing active resignations from the service in the weeks and months to come. That cannot be allowed to happen.

Any move that could damage the quality and reliability of our Coastguard services is a matter that should concern us all – which is why I am seeking a meeting with the MCA’s chief executive to discuss their decision as a matter of urgency.

No one who volunteers for Coastguard service does so for the money involved but, for sake of that £11 an hour, the MCA risks undermining one of our keystone public services for generations to come.

Alistair Carmichael is the Scottish Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland