Coastguard Volunteers: Remuneration and HMRC Guidance

Lara Bird Excerpts

Wednesday 1st July 2026 Westminster Hall

[Lara Bird (Arbroath and Broughty Ferry) (SNP)]

I thank the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael) for securing the debate.

It is important to me that this is my first contribution in this place, having arrived only last week, because the first email I ever had from a constituent was on this very matter. I have been inundated with similar emails since. That demonstrates the importance of this issue to so many of our constituents, which many others have mentioned.

In my coastal constituency, a coastguard station in Arbroath proudly serves the stretch of coast between Montrose and Dundee; it is fundamental to the safety and protection of those in peril all the way to St Andrews. It is a busy corridor, and the coastguard works closely with RNLI stations in Arbroath and in Broughty Ferry to save hundreds of lives every year.

The volunteers who dedicate their time and lives are so much more than volunteers. They are members of our community—mine and everyone else’s—who work day in, day out and deserve to be respected for that. Coastguard teams not only respond to traditional maritime emergencies but, as many have said, are increasingly called to incidents involving, for example, people experiencing severe mental health distress, including vulnerable individuals at risk near coastal areas, bridges, cliffs and waterways, which my constituency has in abundance.

This very real decision has very real consequences for people’s lives, and constituents who have spoken to me do not feel it has been handled with adequate respect or seriousness. At a time when communities, including mine, are facing pressures on mental health services, reductions in community outreach provision and increased demands on emergency services, the coastguard is becoming an essential part of the crisis response service. Does the Minister accept that highly trained responders who are being relied on to undertake complex, distressing and lifesaving interventions cannot simply be viewed as casual volunteers? In coastal communities such as Angus, losing experienced CROs will affect not just rescue capacity, but the wider safety nets available to people in their darkest moments.

Morale in my CRO team in Arbroath is exceptionally low. My constituents have conveyed to me that they feel this process has been done to them, not with them or for them. The two questionnaires circulated—“badly drafted” questionnaires, as they put it—were the only basis on which they were able to convey their concerns. What assessment have the Government made of the impact that changing the status may have on recruitment, retention and the resilience of the coastal emergency response? Those are the key questions that my constituents have.