Empowered by the Merchant Shipping Act 1995, we have a statutory duty as the General Lighthouse Authority (GLA) for England, Wales, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar.
Our aids to navigation (AtoNs) help thousands of mariners annually to navigate their way safely around some of the UK’s busiest waters including the Dover Strait, the world’s busiest shipping lane.
Our lighthouses, buoys, lightvessels, beacons and electronic aids to navigation systems assist all mariners at all times and in all conditions.
As shipping lanes around the UK grow increasingly crowded and our demand for consumer goods rises, the safe transit of our shipping and our seafarers is more important than ever.
For supermarket and high street shelves to remain stocked and for British exports to reach the rest of the world, Trinity House and the mix of aids to navigation we maintain and develop will continue to guide shipping safely through our waters.
We have been operating in the waters around England, Wales and the Channel Islands since 1741, using purpose-built tonnage equipped to the highest technical standard and manned by professionally qualified officers and crew.
Coordinated and monitored around the clock by our Planning Centre, typical vessel activities include wreck location and marking, AtoN maintenance, towing, buoy handling and surveying.
Working at sea is unpredictable and inherently hazardous; to preserve the safety of the mariner we take measures to make sure we can respond effectively should an incident occur, working closely with our partners at the Department for Transport and the MCA. We have a vessel ready to respond within six hours of the Dover Strait , carrying our instantly recognisable Emergency Wreck Marking Buoys.
More information about our role as a GLA