Hosted by HM Coastguard (HMCG) in partnership with the Merseyside Resilience Forum, Exercise Pendleton Spirit tested the ability of five Local Resilience Forums (LRFs) to respond to a large passenger vessel incident.
The scenario was modelled on a risk identified in the UK National Risk Register, requiring all agencies to maintain preparedness for a major maritime incident. Three LRF plans were exercised alongside HMCG’s Mass Rescue Operations Framework.
The exercise involved a fire onboard a fictitious passenger vessel and a challenging, disorderly evacuation, resulting in casualties being dispersed across the North West of England and North Wales to planned and unplanned landing sites.
To manage this, two Strategic Coordination Groups (SCGs) and one Tactical Coordination Group (TCG) were convened simultaneously across Merseyside, Lancashire, and North Wales.
The initial responders were later joined by partners from Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Cumbria, and authorities from the Isle of Man at a Response Co-ordinating Group, chaired by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), to ensure an effective coordinated regional response.
This was one of the first regional exercises in the UK to involve collaboration across multiple English LRFs and the devolved administration in Wales.
HM Coastguard Rescue Centre Coordination Manager (RCCM) Lawrence Ramsay said: “This was the culmination of three years of work. We started by engaging partners on the need to prepare for maritime risk, supported them to develop plans for such an incident, and exercised locally before bringing it all together with a full regional exercise.
"We can never underestimate the need to be prepared for the worst, and Exercise Pendleton Spirit will allow us to learn key lessons to ensure we are even better prepared, should the worst happen.”
