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To be fair, a certain amount of what the MCA deals with is already outside their remit ie above the high tide line overland which is technically police primacy and no-one seems to worry about that.
CAN OF WORMS WARNING!
The high water mark has long been offered as a marker between SAR jurisdictions. However, I and others have searched for a statutory provision supporting this idea but have found none. Another result of those searches is a failure to find any statutory authority for the Coastguard.
Although the police in Scotland acquire authority directly through the provisions of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 and the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012, the Coastguard acquires authority only secondhand through the authority conferred on a Secretary of State by statutes or conventions.
A significant worry for some SAR partners during the contract process for the new UK SAR Helicopter Service has been the police taking their eye off the ball. In England, NPAS, the threat of mergers, payments from Murdoch and framing cabinet ministers has distracted them from minor issues like public safety. In Scotland, the long-term navel-gazing of the police unification process has taken the same toll.