Accredited official statistics

Search and rescue helicopter annual statistics: year ending March 2022

Annual summary of civilian search and rescue helicopter operations in the UK, covering April 2021 to March 2022.

Documents

Search and rescue helicopter statistics: Year ending March 2022 tables

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Details

Changes to these statistics

The department is reviewing the frequency of the search and rescue helicopter statistical series and is proposing to reduce it from 2 publications a year to 1 annual release in the summer. Based on the feedback received, the next biannual statistics release for April to September 2022 will be the final biannual release. The department is proposing that this will only contain the record level statistics provided in table SARH0112 and an update to the interactive dashboard, which covers all the information usually presented in the other tables, and will not provide an update for the maps document.

We welcome any feedback from users on the proposed presentation of the statistics (including any negative impact of the reduced outputs for the next biannual release).

Statistics on civilian search and rescue helicopter (SARH) activity in the United Kingdom, based on details of taskings recorded by the Aeronautical Rescue Coordination Centre (ARCC).

For the year ending March 2022:

  • there were 2,747 civilian SARH taskings
  • Prestwick base was the busiest of the 10 bases, responding to 463 taskings
  • there were 1,608 people rescued and 397 people assisted across all taskings

There was a 26% increase in taskings compared to the year ending March 2021. The coronavirus pandemic is likely to have had an impact on tasking figures, whereby domestic holiday preferences may be related to the broad peak of taskings over the summer and autumn months.

Notes and guidance

Notes and definitions and guidance about the quality of these statistics is available on the SARH information page.

Interactive dashboard

Explore the data via our interactive search and rescue helicopter statistics dashboard covering SARH taskings from April 2015 onwards.

Contact us

Search and rescue helicopter statistics

Email SARH.stats@dft.gov.uk

Public enquiries 020 7944 4847

Media enquiries 0300 7777 878

Updates to this page

Published 22 June 2022

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