UK SAR privatisation in disarray

The £6bn sell-off of the search and rescue helicopter service was halted when the successful bidder admitted to having been given access to ‘commercially sensitive information’ by a Whitehall insider.

In a Commons statement, transport secretary Phillip Hammond said the preferred bidder, private consortium Soteria, had voluntarily come forward to tell of irregularities in the activities of its bid team.

The Minister said, ‘The irregularities included access by one of the consortium members, CHC Helicopters, to commercially sensitive information regarding the joint Ministry of Defence – Department for Transport project team’s evaluations of industry bids and evidence that a former member of that project team had assisted the consortium in its bid preparation, contrary to explicit assurances given to the project team.’

‘Ministry of Defence police are investigating how the commercially sensitive information came to be in the possession of the bidder’, he added.

The privatisation would replace the current fleet of ageing Sea King helicopters operated by the Royal Navy, the RAF and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency with new aircraft from American manufacturer Sikorsky. The sell-off of a much admired service has been widely criticised. Prince William, who is a Sea King pilot based at RAF Valley on Anglesey, is reported to have raised his concerns with Prime Minister David Cameron when both were in Zurich in December in support of England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup.

One of many issuing statements in response to the announcement was Bob Crow, the general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union. He said, ‘This whole sordid and botched episode shows that the raw greed of the private sector should never be allowed anywhere near life or death rescue services on the high seas. Millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money has been wasted and the whole plan should now be scrapped, not shelved.’