I would like to begin by suggesting a small but important correction to the title of this Symposium. We must not refer to “the UK”, which infers the islands and surrounding coastal waters, but to the entire area for which the United Kingdom has search and rescue responsibilities.

The ICAO Convention, to which we were signatories in Chicago 1947, laid down that “Contracting States, separately or jointly, shall delineate Search and Rescue Areas for which they will be responsible, and establish one Rescue Co-ordination Centre in each”.

This Agreement went on to recommend that the areas might extend beyond national boundaries, by agreement with neighbouring States, and, as the Search and Rescue Services were to operate in close conjunction with the Air Traffic Services, there would be mutual operational advantages in having the Flight Information Regions and Search and Rescue Areas co-extensive.