Future of coastguard search and rescue helicopter services

Greg Oxley

Search and rescue services overview

Search and rescue (SAR) provision in the UK is delivered through an amalgam of government departments, emergency services and various SAR charities and voluntary organisations. UK SAR is organised through the UK SAR Strategic Committee, an inter-departmental body which is currently chaired by the Department for Transport (DfT).

HM Coastguard provides a response and co-ordination service for air- and sea-based SAR in the UK. HM Coastguard is a section of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), which is itself an agency of the DfT.

HM Coastguard co-ordinates air and sea-based SAR through its ten operations centres around the UK. These are in Caernarfon, Humberside, Inverness, Lee-on-Solent, Lydd, Newquay, Prestwick, St Athan, Sumburgh and Stornoway. Additionally, London Coastguard is co-located with the Port of London Authority and looks after SAR on the River Thames. The National Maritime Operations Centre is based within HM Coastguard’s national centre at Fareham in Hampshire.

According to the MCA’s Strategic Overview of SAR in the UK (updated May 2024), HM Coastguard’s role “includes the mobilisation, organisation and tasking of adequate resources to respond to persons in distress in the air, at sea, in tidal waters or at risk of injury or death on the sea cliffs and shoreline of the UK.”

Other authorities, primarily police forces, also have an SAR role. Police forces utilise their command-and-control infrastructure to co-ordinate land-based SAR operations. As with HM Coastguard, police forces enable specialist, mainly voluntary organisations to respond to incidents and emergencies. HM Coastguard has delegated responsibility from the police for maritime SAR in some specific inland areas such as major lakes in Scotland and in England’s Lake District.

In all areas the police retain primary responsibility for investigating deaths.

Fire services, ambulance services, and the Ministry of Defence may all also be involved in responding to SAR incidents, as can a range of voluntary organisations (such as Mountain Rescue, the British Cave Rescue Council, and Beach Lifeguards). The assistance of these voluntary organisations is requested and tasked through one of the civilian coordinating authorities – that is, a police force or HM Coastguard, who retain primacy for an overall incident.

HM Coastguard discharges the MCA’s responsibilities as a ‘Category 1’ responder for maritime emergencies under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. Other category 1 responders include the Ambulance, Fire and Police services. In emergencies, 999 calls can be directed to HM Coastguard, who can also be contacted by seafarers issuing a ‘mayday’ broadcast.

Search and rescue helicopter services

The UK SAR helicopter service provides a 24-hour search and rescue service for incidents on the water, along the coast and to help with inland rescues where a helicopter is needed, such as mountain rescues. A paramedic level of care is provided as standard by this service.

The UK SAR helicopter service provides 18 SAR helicopters and six fixed-wing planes from 10 bases in the UK. There are two aircraft positioned at each base, plus a duty aircraft and a spare in the event that the duty aircraft is unserviceable.

The UK SAR helicopter service is funded by the MCA, which is funded by the DfT.

According to annual official statistics on the use of SAR helicopters (last published in March 2024) there were 2,735 SAR helicopter taskings in the UK, which is equivalent to 7.5 taskings a day. This was a 6% increase compared to the year ending March 2023.

Just under half of taskings were classified as rescue or recovery (1,351), followed by support (576), search (518) and pre-arranged transfers (290).

1,425 people were rescued and 159 assisted by SAR helicopters across all taskings during the year ending March 2024. This is a decrease of 3% and of 70% respectively on the year ending March 2023.

SAR helicopter services supported and completed 65% of all taskings during the year ending March 2024, whilst 31% of taskings were terminated and 4% were diverted, suspended or cancelled.

UK Second-Generation Search and Rescue Aviation Programme

In July 2022, it was announced that Bristow Helicopters had been awarded a £1.6 billion ten year contract to deliver the UK Second-Generation Search and Rescue Aviation Programme (UKSAR2G).

UKSRAR26 will replace some existing services and will combine helicopter, fixed-wing planes and drone capability to “develop a more tailored and modern means of delivering vital search and rescue capabilities in a more cost-efficient and innovative way.”

The MCA stated that by focussing on innovation and advances in technology, SAR will be able to “save more lives, even more quickly.”

Leaked plans to increase the emergency response time for rescue helicopters based at Sumburgh Airport

On 5 October 2023, a whistleblower sent Orkney and Shetland MP, Alistair Carmichael, an internal Bristow Helicopters’ document which indicated that the MCA were considering increasing the emergency response time for the helicopter service based at Sumburgh Airport in Shetland from 15 minutes to 60 minutes from October 2026.

Whilst the MCA said that it was unable to comment, it confirmed that “the current state of readiness at Sumburgh (15 minutes in the day and 45 minutes at night) would continue until October 2026” and that “discussions relating to readiness states beyond this date are ongoing.”

In response, Mr Carmichael held a debate in Parliament on SAR services in which he said that the proposed changes were “dangerous […] and could put lives at risk”. He urged the MCA to start again on the proposals which he said “has not been handled well” and had “caused enormous concern in the local community.”

During the debate, the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for transport announced that the DfT had been informed by the MCA that it was conducting an analysis of recent incident data to examine whether the demand for the SAR helicopter service has changed and “whether amendments to the service are required in light of changes to the demand profile”.

The Minister also stated that any changes wouldn’t happen “for many years to come” and that “all four current helicopter bases in Scotland will remain open, with additional fixed-wing capabilities and a seasonal base in north-west Scotland to provide additional enhancements on an ongoing basis.”

In May 2024, the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for transport stated that the MCA’s analysis was expected to be published by the end of 2024. The MCA’s analysis has not yet been published.