SUB-COMMITTEE ON
RADIOCOMMUNICATIONS AND SEARCH
AND RESCUE
4th session
Agenda item 8.2
COMSAR 4/8/8
13 April 1999
Original: ENGLISH
MATTERS CONCERNING SEARCH AND RESCUE, INCLUDING THOSE RELATED TO THE 1979 SAR CONFERENCE AND INTRODUCTION OF THE GMDSSS
SOLAS regulation V/15 (c) and SAR Co-operation Plans
Note by the United Kingdom
SUMMARY
Executive summary: This document provides information on the management tools being used in the United Kingdom to enable SAR Co-operation Plans to be efficiently administered and made available. The document invites other SAR Services to make use of these arrangements.
Action to be taken: Paragraph 10
Related documents: MSC/Circ.864
Introduction
1 The Maritime Safety Committee, at its sixty-ninth session, noted that the 1995 SOLAS Conference, in adopting amendments to the 1974 SOLAS Convention concerning the safety of ro-ro passenger ships, adopted regulation V/15 (c), which requires passenger ships to which SOLAS chapter I applies, trading on fixed routes, to have on board a Plan for co-operation with appropriate search and rescue (SAR) services in the event of an emergency. The Committee, having considered the recommendations made by the Sub Committee on Radiocommunications and Search and Rescue (COMSAR) at its third session, approved Guidelines for preparing plans for co-operation between passenger ships and SAR services (in accordance with SOLAS regulation V/15 (c)), as set out in MSC Circular 864.
The SAR Data Provider System
2 In the United Kingdom, all United Kingdom passenger ships wherever they may be, and all other passenger ships operating on regular scheduled services while they are within United Kingdom waters, must have on board an approved SAR Co-operation Plan in accordance with the guidelines set out in MSC/Circ.864. Copies of each Plan are also held at relevant RCCs.
3 In most cases the ships affected by the United Kingdom regulations operate in only one SAR Region, or in very few, and up-to-date copies of their SAR Co-operation Plans can easily be maintained at the relevant RCC (s) by using a controlled distribution system.
