Teddington’s lifeboat crews have defended their role in keeping people safe on the Thames, after a data mix up suggested they had hardly anything to do.

Stats released last month showed the Teddington station had just 16 shouts in 2013, compared with the actual figure of 52.

Helmsman Andy Butterfield said: “That sounds about right, I am not sure why or how the other number was released.

“We usually do about 60 shouts per year.”

In 2012, crews were called out 53 times and about 14 in January alone this year due to the bad weather.

Mr Butterfield said: “Sometimes we will get called out while we are still on another shout so would do a couple of jobs but it only gets counted as one.”

Teddington has two 16ft flat bottom boats, which are good at navigating around shallow waters.

Mr Butterfield said: “We will support Chiswick sometimes on their stretch. We are 100 per cent volunteer.”

Teddington’s RNLI covers a 7.5m-stretch of the Thames which includes Hampton Court, Kingston, Teddington, Twickenham and Richmond.