Major maritime accidents – rare incidents that can have far-reaching environmental consequences

The Swedish National Audit Office notes that it is unclear whether the Swedish Coast Guard has the resources needed to maintain capacity for environmental rescue in shallow areas. At the same time, the Coast Guard does not need to own all such resources itself. However, if the agency lacks resources, this needs to be supplemented by well-prepared resource collaboration with other actors. To prepare for such collaboration, the Coast Guard’s communication with other actors concerning the agency’s capacity for environmental rescue needs to be clear. This applies not least in relation to coastal municipalities, which ultimately bear the consequences if capacity for environmental maritime rescue fails.

Maritime environmental rescue operators are divided into several different sectors and levels (national, regional and local), which means that they rarely meet within the framework of the existing structure for handling accidents and crises. Therefore, they need to act proactively and establish new forms of dialogue and information exchange. This applies, for example, to the question of vessels in distress that need to find a safe harbour. In this matter, the Swedish Transport Agency needs to take greater responsibility for clarifying the relations between the actors through dialogue and exchanging information. The Government also needs to ensure that the national collaborative group for the protection against oil damage (NSO) will not be dissolved and operates effectively through clear governance and monitoring.

The rare occurrence of major shipping accidents means that overall capability for environmental maritime rescue relies on exercises at strategic and operational level. The Swedish National Audit Office assesses that the Swedish Coast Guard’s work for more coherent and systematic exercise planning enables it to focus on the right scenarios, in the right order and with the right participants. However, there is a need for more exercises focusing on major shipping accidents, in which maritime authorities collaborate with county administrative boards and municipal rescue services, both on decision-making and on operational management. The Swedish National Audit Office assesses that one of the reasons why such exercises are rarely conducted is that planning and implementing such exercises with broad participation is highly time-consuming and resource-intensive, and there is no actor with clearly designated coordination responsibility. The Government should therefore assign to an authority the task of coordinator for exercises with broader participation.

The Swedish National Audit Office notes that the changing global landscape prompts a need for continuous risk analysis to ensure needs-based capabilities for environmental maritime rescue. Relevant risk scenarios are being developed, both within the framework of national collaborations and in an international context. However, these are updated far too seldom to form the sole basis for planning. The Swedish National Audit Office therefore considers that, in its planning for environmental maritime rescue, the Swedish Coast Guard should refer more clearly to its own analyses within the framework of the risk and vulnerability analysis that is presented every two years. It is also important for analyses of needs and risks to be gathered in a continuous process to create consensus in the agency’s planning in this area.

The focus of this audit is on peacetime capabilities. At the same time, it is not possible to isolate this from total defence efforts. This is partly because planning for crisis and war overlaps in important areas, and partly because planning and exercises, whether they relate to crisis or war, take place in peacetime. The Swedish National Audit Office considers that the Swedish Coast Guard has a challenge in terms of simultaneously maintaining its capacity for environmental maritime rescue and meeting the needs of military defence.