Insufficient exercises and preparedness for environmental maritime rescue
Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and the changing global landscape pose heightened risks of major environmental maritime accidents. The Swedish National Audit Office’s audit shows that Swedish government agencies are not adequately prepared to handle such an incident, and that both planning and exercises need to be improved.
Photo: The Swedish Coast Guard
The Swedish National Audit Office has examined Swedish government agencies’ conditions for conducting environmental maritime rescue operations. The overall conclusion is that there are deficiencies in both planning and practical conditions that may have a negative impact on such capabilities.
A fundamental problem is that it is unclear what resources the Swedish Coast Guard has at its disposal for conducting environmental rescue in shallow areas. The Swedish Coast Guard does not need to own all the resources itself, but must clearly communicate what other actors – not least coastal municipalities – need to add. This is not happening to a sufficient extent.
The most obvious shortcoming is that the agencies are not sufficiently conducting exercises. Such operations require extensive cooperation among a wide range of actors, and more training exercises need to be conducted with a focus on major shipping accidents, in which maritime authorities cooperate with county administrative boards and municipal rescue services.
“Unfortunately, there is no actor with clearly designated responsibility for such training exercises. The Government should therefore assign to an authority the task of coordinating such training exercises,” says Auditor General Christina Gellerbrant Hagberg.
Environmental maritime rescue is complicated by the numerous actors involved, as well as the various sectors and different levels of society. This also means that challenges need to be discussed jointly to enable them to prepare and take relevant measures.
The Government and government agencies therefore need to enhance dialogue and information exchange. This is the case, for example, when vessels in distress need to find a place of refuge – an area where the Swedish Transport Agency in particular needs to take greater responsibility.
“The actors need to focus more on working proactively and preparing together to enable handling major shipping accidents,” says Anna Forsström, project leader for the audit.
Recommendations in brief
It is recommended that the Government:
- assign to a government agency the task of coordinating exercises in which the Swedish Coast Guard, the Swedish Maritime Administration, the Swedish Transport Agency, country administrative boards and municipal rescue services conduct joint exercises in handling major shipping accidents with maritime environmental consequences;
- clarify the responsibility of coordinating and participating in the national collaborative group for the protection against oil damage (NSO);
- follow up to ensure that the Swedish Coast Guard balances its civilian and military defence tasks to enable maintaining its capacity for environmental maritime rescue in crisis and war.
Recommendations to the Swedish Coast Guard include:
- clarifying and communicating the agency’s capability in environmental rescue services, as well as which tasks the agency can manage independently and which ones need to be resolved together with other actors
- prioritising the process of bringing about coordinated exercise activities
- taking steps towards a coherent analysis process of needs and risks linked to the agency’s overall risk and vulnerability analysis.
The Swedish Transport Agency is recommended to strengthen the dialogue between maritime authorities and the relevant county administrative boards on the issue of places of refuge to facilitate interoperability in the event of an operation.