§ Mr. SpellerTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to his reply of 27 November,Official Report, column 82, if he will list the primary, secondary and third 999 telephone routes to the south west coastguard from North Devon.
§ Mr. McLoughlinThe routing of 999 calls is a matter for British Telecom.
§ Mr. SpellerTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to his reply of 27 November,Official Report, column 82, if he will cause inquiries to be made into whether the 999 call indicated as having been misrouted was made to Milford Haven because Swansea coastguard was not available or did not answer the original 999 call.
§ Mr. McLoughlinBritish Telecom has already, at the request of Her Majesty's Coastguard carried out an investigation into the misrouted call. Its finding is that the call was routed to Milford Haven due to a technical fault on the Swansea line, the operator automatically re-routing the call in accordance with standard procedures.
§ Mr. SpellerTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether, in circumstances when the primary coastguard is not available on a 999 call, the secondary station contacted has a firm procedure for reporting back to the primary station or takes control of the incident; and if he will make a statement with regard to the incident on 15 August in which a youth drowned in Rapperee cove, Ilfracombe.
§ Mr. McLoughlinIt is standard procedure within Her Majesty's Coastguard that any station receiving an indication of a distress situation, by whatever means the information is received, will, if the incident is not within its area of responsibility, pass the information by the most expedient means to the appropriate station for action. In the incident on 16 August, Milford Haven coastguard, having received a 999 telephone call indicating distress, not within its area, passed the information firstly by VHF radio, and subsequently by telex, to Swansea coastguard.