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Drownings

Answer

The number of people who have died in UK coastal waters in each of the last ten calendar years:

Calendar year	Confirmed fatalities
2017	477
2018	491
2019	493
2020	473
2021	487
2022	518
2023	571
2024	529
2025	539
2026 (January to August only)	379

HM Coastguard currently has approximately 662 employees.

The total number of search and rescue incidents for the last ten calendar years is:

Calendar year	Total SAR incidents
2017	23,107
2018	24,432
2019	29,088
2020	30,543
2021	32,613
2022	33,468
2023	31,162
2024	31,141
2025	32,155
2026 (January to August only)	25,237

The number of people estimated to have been successfully rescued by HM Coastguard in each year for which HM Coastguard holds consistent records is:

Year	Total
2019	30,383
2020	35,945
2021	61,612
2022	79,546
2023	59,446
2024	62,364
2025	64,618
2026 (January to August only)	28,865

HM Coastguard does not hold data on the average cost of each callout to which HM Coastguard responds.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

HL2832

Session

2026-27

Grouped for answer

Yes

Subjects

Death Coastal areas Seas and oceans Drownings

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk