Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what recent assessment she has made of the effect on the UK offshore oil and gas industry workforce of the withdrawal of the Super Puma airframes from commercial operation.

The withdrawal from service of most of the Super Puma helicopter models followed the tragic crash in Norway with the loss of 13 lives on 29 April this year. We are confident that the Norwegian Accident Investigation Board will determine the cause of the crash and that the UK regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority, will then decide on the appropriate longer term action to take. It was entirely appropriate for the relevant Super Puma models to be immediately withdrawn from service by the CAA in the light of the circumstances of the accident, and this should have given assurance to the UK offshore oil and gas industry workforce about the regulatory controls in place. Oil and Gas UK, the main trade association for the industry, has formed a Helicopter Resilience Group with members from industry to discuss how logistics can be managed more effectively.