Hampshire County Council has revealed it was prepared to support unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, manage the road network and ensure coroner services were ready if small boats carrying migrants landed directly on the county’s coast.
The authority said contingency planning had been carried out with partner agencies through the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Local Resilience Forum following recent incidents involving people crossing the Channel.
The council said it did not provide direct operational support to the RNLI during the incidents, explaining that the charity is independent and responsible for its own rescue operations.
However, emergency plans had identified a number of areas in which the county council could have been required to act if a landing took place in Hampshire.
These included maintaining the safety and operation of the highway network, providing support through children’s services to any unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and ensuring coroner services were prepared in the event of fatalities.
Hampshire County Council said none of those statutory response functions ultimately had to be activated.
The authority said: “As events transpired, the county council was not required to exercise any of its statutory response functions in relation to these incidents.
“Our involvement was limited to planning and coordination through established resilience arrangements, and no direct operational action by the county council was ultimately required.”
The council’s coroner service is responsible for supporting independent coroners who investigate deaths in circumstances including where a death is violent or unnatural or where the cause is unknown.
Question raised at full council
Details of the contingency planning emerged following a question submitted at Hampshire County Council’s full council meeting on October 1 by Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Keith House.
He asked what support the authority had provided to the RNLI and its volunteers following recent incidents along Hampshire’s southern coast.
In comments accompanying the question, Cllr House praised the RNLI and criticised Reform UK over comments made about the charity’s involvement in migrant rescue operations.
He said: “The RNLI make our coastline and waters safer by being there to save lives. They are true heroes.
“The Liberal Democrats at Hampshire fully support their brave efforts saving lives without fear or favour.”
Reform UK was approached for comment in the original report but had not responded by the time of publication.
The council stressed that its involvement remained limited to emergency planning and coordination and that no direct operational intervention was ultimately required.
