Exercise Midway

Oakwood House in Maidstone Kent

1. Midway overview


The Delegates

The planning for Exercise Midway started in July 2007 with the exercise taking place on the 19th and 20th February 2008 at Oakwood House in Maidstone Kent. The event took place over two days and a total of 135 delegates from across the UK attended. As well as table top exercises the event had presentations from SOSREP, Craig Cook (MIRG) and Mick Free from ACPO on Dealing with Mass Fatalaities. The event was opened by Peter Cardy (CEO MCA) and closed by the Kent Chief Emergency Planning officer. In addition there was a keynote speech from Bruce Mann the Director of the Civil Contingencies Secretariat. The event was jointly funded by the MCA, Kent County Council, Essex County Council and Kent Primary Care Trust.

Why Exercise Midway?

Guidance for Complex Maritime Emergencies

Guidance for the management of land-based emergencies is clear and well practiced. Similarly, the management of marine based emergencies is well established and practiced by the Maritime & Coastguard Agency. The inter-agency management of marine pollution emergencies is also subject to clear guidance that has proved to be effective. The principal weakness, however, is that none of the guidance considers an incident that requires all these elements.

The complexity of a marine based major emergency, that also has significant land-based effects and major coastal pollution, is not addressed by any of the existing guidance. An example of such an incident would be a collision between a tanker and a large ferry close to shore, or in a harbour. Similarly, a collision between a cruise liner and a container ship carrying hazardous cargo would be extremely challenging.

Such incidents would potentially involve many command and advisory elements, which usually do not work together, having to do so. Without guidance and pre-planning the potential for conflict, duplication of effort and confusion of responsibilities is substantial. There is guidance on how the Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre, the Marine Response Centre, Salvage Control Unit, Environment Group, and Shoreline Response Centre should work together, but not on how they will also work with the Strategic Co-ordinating Group, Science & Technical Advice Cell, Casualty Bureau, Survivor Reception Centres, various ‘Silver’ controls etc. There is also the problem that some agencies would be unable to resource all those command and advisory elements.

Consideration needs to be given to co-locating some elements to both improve co-ordination and to make resourcing easier. For example, it may be appropriate to co-locate the Strategic Co-ordinating Group with the Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre or the Shoreline Response Centre. Where there is potential conflict between elements, guidance is required on who is responsible, and in which circumstances. For example, both the Environment Group and the Science & Technical Advice Cell have responsibilities for public health advice. This could result in conflicting public information if arrangements are not agreed in advance of an incident.

We have been fortunate that we have not experienced such a complex emergency, but we have had some close calls. One example was the collision between the container ship ‘Ever Decent’ and the passenger ship ‘Norwegian Dream’, near Dover. This had the potential to be much more serious and complex. We have also had some examples of conflict, duplication of effort and confusion of responsibilities at a number of less complex incidents. The most recent of which was the container ship ‘Napoli’ off the Devon coast.

A proper evaluation of the difficulties posed by such incidents, and of the best way to overcome them, is essential. The results of that process should then be incorporated in to national guidance.

Exercise Midway Planning Team