Blending Traditional Seamanship with New Maritime Roles and High Technology
Border Force is responsible for securing the UK’s borders, including almost 12,000 miles of coastline. It does this by carrying out immigration and customs controls for people and goods entering the UK. Going back centuries the main issue has always been the smuggling of goods, but in recent years the increase in organised immigration crime has seen its work focussed more and more on tackling people trafficking.
The Border Force’s National Maritime Information Centre and its Maritime Information Bureau are the lead departments for understanding maritime activity around the UK and its areas of national interest around the globe. They work together, alongside other Government departments, to assist in countering the maritime threats that the UK faces.
An area of activity which Border Force is keen to improve its capability on is general maritime activity which includes non-scheduled, non-commercial maritime traffic and generally includes vessels such as yachts, tugs, RHIBs and small motor boats.
An ongoing challenge is blending traditional seamanship with new maritime roles and high technology.
Commander Chris Pratt MBE (AFNI) - Border Protection Squadron, Border Force
Commander Pratt is Designated Person Ashore (ISM Code) Border Force. He has served with H M Customs since 1976, at sea on Customs interdiction duties since 1978, command since 1988 with over 11 years actual Sea Service.
Fleet Superintendent (Deck), Commander Pratt commissioned the last three Cutter Classes in 1989, 1993 and 2001. He has been on vessel and aircraft Steering Group with HMC&E (Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise) since 1989.
He has served in many countries on training and vessel design including Eire, Spain, Italy, Poland, Turkey, Finland, Holland and USA. He was part of the EU Twinning Project (overall) Leader for ‘Modernising Turkish Customs’ working on training, strategy and IBM concepts 2009 to 2012. STCW 95 qualified, re-valorising to STCW 2010 compliance. Continue now with CoC ‘Continuous Professional Development’ concepts. He is an Associate Fellow of The Nautical Institute (AFNI) and was last Head of Customs Marine Branch.
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