Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many offshore energy workers have been winched to safety from (a) fixed offshore oil and gas installations, (b) floating production storage and offloading units and (c) offshore wind farms on the UK Continental Shelf by HM Coastguard Search and Rescue helicopters in each year since 2015.

The winching systems on search and rescue (SAR) helicopters have a limit on their load capacity which has been further reduced by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) imposed limit for the carriage of ‘human external cargo’. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) do not have additional operational limits on these winching systems and the rescue coordination centre will follow operational procedures for any SAR response.

The total number of individuals winched from offshore energy installations by HM Coastguard SAR aircraft since 2021 is 57. This includes 55 from oil and gas and two related to offshore wind. The oil and gas figure of 55 includes 29 evacuated from a semi-submersible.

From January 2021 to June 2026, SAR helicopters rescued 927 people from commercial vessels. The role of the person rescued is not routinely recorded.