News

12 January 2012
WELCOME FROM UK POLICE FOR CHANGE IN BEACON LAW

Police across the United Kingdom have welcomed the news that Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs) can be legally used on land within the United Kingdom from today. 

The change in the law could now help save lives on land across the UK, as well as reducing the risk to rescuers and mountain rescue teams.

When activated, the PLB transmits unique identification information, providing positional data and sends out a continuous homing transmission.  This will help emergency services to locate casualties and has the potential to remove the need for lengthy, arduous and expensive search activity.

PLBs are expected to be used on land, primarily by those involved in recreational and outdoor activity. They may also be used by lone workers in occupations which may take them into rural areas.

When a member of the public purchases a new device, they are being urged to complete and return the free registration card to the address provided.

In a joint statement, and speaking on behalf of police forces in Scotland, England and Wales, Deputy Chief Constables Andy Cowie and Ian Shannon said: 

“This legislative change will allow members of the public to use handheld PLB devices on land anywhere in the UK which when activated, will send a distress alert message that will be picked up by satellite and relayed via the UK Mission Control Centre (UKMCC) direct to the authorities.

“The UKMCC, co-located with the Air Rescue Co-ordination Centre (ARCC), currently at RAF Kinloss, will receive, process and verify co-ordinates for activations before informing the relevant police force. 

“The police service has been at the forefront, in planning these changes and colleagues in police forces across the UK are fully aware of the changes in legislation. We have worked with the Ministry of Defence, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, the Department for Transport and OFCOM to get the necessary protocols in place to deal effectively with PLB activations.”

They continued:

“Mountain and lowland search and rescue teams are busy all year round and if we can take advantage of new technology to help manage and minimise the risk to rescuers and help speed up the rescue process in an emergency, there is no doubt that we can save lives which might otherwise have been lost.

“It will also help reduce the burden on volunteer rescue teams and searchers across the UK. Satellite coverage is much wider than mobile coverage and we have to take advantage of that.”

PLBs are already available for use in the aviation and maritime industries as part of the existing licensing and registration regime, regulated by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) on behalf of the Department for Transport.