Mr. Eugene Clonan:

I agree. The coastal unit advisory group, CUAG, is the first port of call. It links into the volunteer community to determine if there are issues. From what has been reported in the media, it is clear there are issues. From my perspective, I need to get a sense of that. However, in the sampling, polling, questionnaires and engagement on whether it is a great place to work, it is not coming through. If there are issues, I want to know about them.

Going back to the Deputy's point about the airline industry, search and rescue is maritime and aviation. I sit on the International Civil Aviation Organisation, ICAO, and International Maritime Organisation, IMO, joint working group on search and rescue, which includes safety. The whole thing about aviation safety is a just culture. We are implementing a just culture within the volunteers and our organisation. I should be able to go down and talk to a person. That person should be able to tell me about mistakes that have been made. For example, he or she should be able to tell me that when he or she put the trailer onto the hitch, it came off and hit something. I want to know about such incidents, not as part of a blame culture but to find out how we can fix it and ensure it does not happen again.

On continuous improvement, a report is produced on any of the incidents we attend, detailing what happened and lessons to be learned. In the past 19 months, with our new safety management system, we have implemented a deviation management process. When a possible deviation from the process is brought to our attention, we stop and investigate from the point of view of finding out what happened. It is not about a blame culture; it is about finding out what happened and making it good. I believe we have had 25 such deviation incidents in the past three years. They are reducing in number as the just culture gets more established. That is how we manage it.