The next item of business is a statement by John Swinney on the helicopter incident. The cabinet secretary will take questions at the end of his statement. There should, therefore, be no interruptions or interventions.
14:46
I am grateful to Parliament for the opportunity to make a statement concerning the recent tragic events in the North Sea. On 23 August, a CHC Super Puma AS332 L2 crashed 2 miles west of Sumburgh airport on a flight from the Total E&P UK-operated Borgsten Dolphin drilling rig.
A search and rescue operation was launched immediately and included a Coastguard Rescue Service helicopter; a Royal Air Force rescue helicopter and a BP jigsaw rescue helicopter; Aith and Lerwick RNLI lifeboats; Sumburgh, No Ness, Lerwick and West Burra coastguard rescue teams; and a Sumburgh airport fire and rescue vessel. Additional helicopters from the RAF and BP jigsaw were also brought in to assist.
I pay tribute to the brave men and women of our emergency services who assisted in the rescue. On Friday, I visited Police Scotland’s Aberdeen division headquarters, where the gold and silver command centres for the operation were based, and I spoke with representatives from Police Scotland, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the strategic co-ordinating group. I thanked them personally for their dedication and professionalism during the emergency response and for their continuing work in terms of investigation and supporting the families of those who were involved in the incident.
We should also acknowledge the role of the voluntary sector—the British Red Cross, the Royal Voluntary Service and others—as well as that of members of the public who assisted in searching the coastline of Shetland. Those are the people who, in a selfless way, step up to the mark when tragedy strikes and make our communities resilient, and they deserve our thanks into the bargain. A number of merchant vessels also responded to the emergency. Parliament should recognise the efforts of those who are not part of the emergency services—for example, people working on commercial ferries—who responded as seafarers to assist in providing additional capacity to deal with the emergency.
Eighteen people—16 passengers and two pilots—were on board the helicopter. Fourteen people, including both pilots, were rescued but, tragically, four people—Duncan Munro from Bishop Auckland, Sarah Darnley from Elgin, Gary McCrossan from Inverness and George Allison from Winchester—lost their lives in the accident. I know that our country and the entire chamber will join me in expressing our deepest sympathy and condolences to their families, friends, colleagues and loved ones at a profoundly difficult time.
The UK oil and gas chaplaincy has opened a book of condolence for those who wish to pay tribute to the four workers, which is available to sign at the oil chapel in the kirk of St Nicholas or online. The First Minister signed the book on behalf of the Scottish Government on Monday 26 August.
A humanitarian assistance centre for relatives was established last Thursday under the auspices of the Grampian strategic co-ordinating group and led by Aberdeen City Council, working in partnership with oil and gas industry members. It is providing practical and emotional support to those affected by the incident.
The oil and gas chaplain, the Rev Gordon Craig, is providing direct support to the families and friends of those involved in the accident. Mr Craig is also working in partnership with the operating companies, the police and the local authorities to provide wider support as and when appropriate. If the families feel it appropriate, that may involve arranging a memorial service at a later date.
As the search and rescue phase of the incident is over, the police and the Air Accidents Investigation Branch are focused on carrying out their investigations into the accident. Considerable police resources have been deployed, together with a significant investigation team from the AAIB, which immediately dispatched a team of investigators and support staff to Aberdeen and the Shetland Islands. The investigation is well under way.
In early advice on the circumstances of the incident, the AAIB stated last Thursday that the helicopter landed intact and upright in the water. Later that day, the AAIB confirmed that it had recovered the flight recorder. The investigation continues at pace, but so far no conclusive findings have been released about the cause of the accident. The Scottish Government and its agencies will liaise with the AAIB as the investigation progresses, and we will provide any assistance that we can to the investigation.
The AAIB is aware of the urgency required in determining the cause of the accident, in particular in relation to reassuring the men and women who are asked to fly today, tomorrow and next week. They must have confidence that the helicopters are safe. As the aviation industry regulator, it would be for the Civil Aviation Authority to take, if necessary, applicationropriate action in the event of any safety recommendations made by the AAIB following its investigation.
It is entirely understandable that concerns about helicopter safety have been heightened because of the close proximity of incidents in the North Sea—this is the fifth incident since 2009 and the second involving fatalities. On Saturday 24 August, the helicopter safety steering group took the precautionary measure of recommending the temporary suspension of all Super Puma commercial passenger flights to and from offshore oil and gas installations in the UK. That suspension did not apply to the use of search and rescue helicopters for emergency response.
On Thursday 29 August, the helicopter safety steering group reviewed its earlier decision in the light of the new information from the AAIB and agreed to lift the voluntary temporary suspension of flights on the L1 and EC225 Super Puma helicopters. That decision was arrived at unanimously. The L2 will remain temporarily suspended from passenger revenue flights only. That means that only 16 of the total 75 helicopters in the North Sea sector remain affected. The matter will be subject to on-going review as new information comes to light.
We know that the five incidents since 2009 involved only two specific types of aircraft: the L2 and the EC225. The EC225 has been subjected to stringent tests and analysis since it was grounded following the October 2012 incident. The helicopter safety steering group regards the EC225 as the safest helicopter available for offshore operations anywhere in the world. The steering group will need to work hard in the coming weeks and months in order to get that message across to the workforce and to help rebuild the confidence of the offshore community.
In addition to releasing the suspension on the L1 and EC225s, the helicopter safety steering group has also launched a far-reaching communications campaign across the industry to engage with the workforce in an effort to rebuild confidence. The boots on campaign has the unanimous support of all industry stakeholders, including the trade unions, the operators and the three helicopter companies in the north-east. Rebuilding the confidence of the men and women who travel to and from our offshore installations must be the key priority.
I pay tribute to all the parties involved in the oil and gas industry in Aberdeen who have been working tirelessly together since the incident to address its consequences. It has been a strong process of co-operative and respectful working between the three helicopter companies, the operating companies, the trade unions—Unite and the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers—and the emergency services in the north-east to respond appropriately to the incident and to take steps to address the genuine concerns about helicopter safety.
To make further progress in addressing concerns about safety, we need to understand the cause of the accident. I have spoken to the United Kingdom minister of state, Greg Barker, and he shares our desire to arrive at an early explanation for the tragic events so that we can learn the lessons and take whatever action is required. Once we know the cause of the incident, we can determine what further inquiry is required to do all that we can to assure all interested parties about the safety of helicopter transport. Law officers and ministers will consider those matters once the findings of the AAIB investigation are known.
In the meantime, the helicopter safety steering group has stated that it will commission a far-reaching independent and strategic review of helicopter safety in the North Sea. That is the right and proper thing to do, and we will support the HSSG as it seeks to establish that initiative. An important foundation of that work must be ensuring that the thinking that is implicit in the step change initiative, which was a product of Lord Cullen’s comprehensive and compelling inquiry into Piper Alpha, is applied to helicopter safety just as it is applied to the production of safety cases, installation by installation.
The oil and gas industry will work collectively to learn lessons from the accident and to ensure that any safety recommendations are implemented quickly to enhance the safety of those who work offshore. It is vital that the safety and security of employees are assured at all times. In the past 35 years, more than 60 million passengers have been carried to and from the platforms. Tens of thousands of flights take place every year. It is the industry and the Government’s duty to work with the trade unions and the offshore community to learn lessons from the latest accident and to take every possible step to ensure that safety is enhanced and remains the first priority for those who service the oil and gas industry in the North Sea sector.
I intend to allow around 20 minutes for questions.
I thank the cabinet secretary for his statement and for early sight of it. I add our condolences to those who lost loved ones in the accident and our thanks to those who were involved in the rescue.
We agree with the cabinet secretary that it is vital to restore confidence in helicopter transport for the sake of the industry but, above all, for the sake of the workforce and their families. However, as he said, the incident on 23 August was the fifth occasion in recent times on which a helicopter has ditched, with 20 lives being lost in two of those accidents.
Whatever the conclusions of the Air Accidents Investigation Branch regarding the cause of the ditching on 23 August, the truth is that wider questions are being asked, to which the workforce will need answers to their strongest satisfaction if confidence is to be regained. Confidence is now so low that an industry review is not likely to be able to restore it. Only a wide-ranging and comprehensive independent inquiry like the one that Lord Cullen carried out will be able to do that, whatever the cause of the latest incident turns out to be.
In our view, the process of beginning to rebuild confidence needs an early commitment, so will the cabinet secretary reconsider his position on the issue and send that important signal by supporting such an independent inquiry now?
I thank Iain Gray for his remarks and welcome him to his post.
A set of steps must be taken if we are to properly and fully address the circumstances of the incident in question, and I think that the position that I set out to Parliament yesterday, on which I have provided more detail today, is the right way to proceed. The incident has to be investigated properly and fully by the AAIB, which must report on its investigation, as a consequence of which it is incumbent on the Civil Aviation Authority—because that is what the law says—to consider and apply any relevant changes to the safety regime. From that will flow issues that will have to be considered by the Lord Advocate, who is in the chamber this afternoon to hear members’ views about further inquiries that might take their course.
The Government maintains that the correct approach is to wait for the sequence of investigation to be undertaken before we come to any conclusion about the need for a wider inquiry. I also point out that although some issues in such an inquiry are devolved, many are reserved and we would have to reach an agreement with the United Kingdom about the nature of an inquiry of the type suggested by Mr Gray, as it would have to be undertaken under the Inquiries Act 2005, which is a piece of reserved legislation.
On Mr Gray’s final point about the helicopter safety steering group review, I encourage him to consider whether in the short term it might possibly assist in starting—and I stress the word “starting”—to rebuild confidence. What the review managed to achieve over the seven days following the incident were unanimity about the correctness of voluntarily suspending the flights of Super Pumas on the Saturday afternoon, which ministers considered to be entirely the correct decision and—based on early communication from the AAIB and agreed unanimously with the trade unions and operators—an agreement to relax that temporary suspension across some classes of Super Puma. The fact that that was able to be agreed unanimously is an encouraging sign that those who operate the helicopter safety steering group respect the workforce’s genuine and substantial concerns about safety, and it has to be followed.
For its part, the Government will do anything that it can to help the steering group to establish and take forward its inquiry and I will certainly report to Parliament on any steps that the Government is able to take to assist in the process. I also assure Iain Gray that we will consider any further inquiries that are required once the conclusions of the AAIB investigation are to hand.
I thank the cabinet secretary for advance sight of his statement and associate myself and the Conservative group with his remarks about those who lost their lives and their families who are at this moment suffering that loss. I also echo the cabinet secretary’s praise of those who engaged in what was a very successful rescue operation and ask that at some point he takes some lessons from that operation to ensure that we are equally successful should such incidents happen in future.
In reassuring the cabinet secretary that I believe that he is correct to say that calls for a public inquiry are premature and that the AAIB is the correct facility for the initial inquiry, I wonder whether he agrees that the key issues in this matter are safety and confidence and that any politician who does anything to unnecessarily undermine the confidence of those who have no alternative but to travel daily by helicopter to their work in the North Sea is being irresponsible.
In that respect, I invite the cabinet secretary to repeat his remarks about the helicopter safety steering group, whose swift and decisive decisions to suspend and reinstate helicopter flights to the North Sea have been extremely important in guaranteeing safety and confidence. Does he also agree that the group’s far-reaching and independent review of helicopter safety in the North Sea is a vital first step towards building that confidence in the future?
I thank Mr Johnstone for his remarks. He made a valid point in his opening remarks about our need to be alert to preparedness in other parts of the country. The fact that the incident took place very close to the coastline of the Shetland Islands, where substantial resources were available in relation to the role of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and other players, was vital in ensuring that the correct resources were able to be deployed swiftly to secure the survival of 14 of the 18 individuals who were involved in the incident. It is clear that time is of the essence in all such circumstances, given the water temperatures that people would endure. Mr Johnstone therefore made a valid point about ensuring preparedness.
Obviously, the Government presides over an emergency response regime, which is regularly tested in all sorts of scenarios. After every incident, we review preparedness under the direction of the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, and it is important that we test the preparations in other scenarios in other parts of the country.
I agree with Mr Johnstone that safety and confidence are utterly fundamental to the debate. We must take care about how we consider, express and pursue those issues because, ultimately, individuals must feel confident when they get on a helicopter. It is very easy for people other than the folk who get on those helicopters to think that it is easy or should be straightforward. Those individuals must be confident about that, so we must be respectful of that process.
One factor that the trade unions told me weighed on their mind about agreeing to resume Super Puma flights was the workforce’s concern about trying to get off oil rigs and on to vessels, including ships. That is not a risk-free process.
We have to allow the helicopter safety steering group to carefully consider the issue. As I said in response to Mr Gray and in my statement, the Government will do everything that we can to ensure that the helicopter safety steering group review gets off on the right footing and is well supported, and we will, of course, advise Parliament of any assistance that the Government is able to make.
I, too, pass on my condolences to the families and friends of those who were lost. Like the vast bulk of folk in the north-east of Scotland, I have family and friends who are regular helicopter passengers. Obviously, the situation is concerning. What support can the Scottish Government give to an industry review on helicopter safety?
We will discuss that actively with the helicopter safety steering group. We have had a great deal of discussion with it since the incident happened, and that dialogue is on-going. We will discuss how the group intends to take forward the inquiry, and we will bring to that discussion determination to ensure that the process is as strong and robust as it possibly can be to ensure that the group contributes towards building confidence within the sector. If there are particular ways in which the Government can provide resources or support to assist that, we will endeavour to do so. We will discuss the subject actively with the group, and I will advise Parliament accordingly.
I, too, thank the cabinet secretary for his statement.
Is the cabinet secretary aware of the concerns that the trade union Unite has raised that, four years after the 2009 Super Puma crash, a fatal accident inquiry into that incident has still not taken place and that has not helped to allay the anxieties of workers about helicopter safety after the most recent tragedy? Will ministers therefore support the work of my colleague Patricia Ferguson as she consults on legislative proposals to speed up the FAI process and do all that they can to ensure that an FAI into the most recent tragedy takes place as soon as it can?
I am aware of the concerns that Richard Baker has raised and I have discussed them directly with the trade union. I am quite happy to make available to Parliament a timeline that perhaps explains all the circumstances since the Super Puma helicopter incident on 1 April 2009. I have in front of me the timeline information, which goes through all the component parts of how the time has elapsed. A lot of it has to do with the very real thoroughness of trying to understand the issues that were addressed by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch. It took the best part of two and a half years to get to the bottom of that inquiry. I appreciate the concerns, but when one looks at the timeline, I think that it is clear that there are reasons why that has been the case.
On the second point that Mr Baker raised—about the approach to fatal accident inquiries—the Government has been considering that subject already and it is under active discussion by ministers. I am quite sure that the Cabinet Secretary for Justice or the Lord Advocate—or perhaps both—would be happy to meet Patricia Ferguson to discuss the provisions that I know she is advancing, because those issues have been part of the consideration that the Government has been taking forward. Our desire is to have fatal accident inquiries as quickly as they can reasonably take place, but there is a sequence of events and parts of a process that have to be undertaken, not least of which is establishing whether there are any issues that the Crown needs to address in relation to criminal proceedings that must be exhausted before we can embark on a fatal accident inquiry.
We are very tight for time, but I am prepared to let questions on the statement run on until 20 minutes past 3. However, I ask for the questions to be as succinct as possible, please.
I attended school with one of the victims of the 2009 Super Puma accident and I, too, have family and friends working offshore and using helicopters regularly, so I understand the concerns that exist in the workforce and their families. Today’s edition of The Press and Journal leads with the news that the seating configuration on helicopters is to be examined. There are wider concerns among the workforce that the efficiency of crew turnaround and getting helicopters back into the air may have led to some of the safety and maintenance agenda slipping. Does the cabinet secretary agree that, whatever the ultimate causes of the tragedy off the coast of Shetland, we must ensure that the wider safety regime is the primary focus of any review and that operators must examine carefully whether they have struck the appropriate balance between safety and maintenance, and the efficiency of crew turnaround?
The last part of Mark McDonald’s question encapsulates the challenges and issues that have to be addressed. Ultimately, however, the primary consideration has to be the safety of the workforce. That was in essence the key point of Lord Cullen’s inquiry into the Piper Alpha incident. Lord Cullen set out a regime that was based on evaluating, installation by installation, the safety approach that was to be undertaken. Some of the lessons of Lord Cullen’s inquiry could well be applied in this circumstance to recognise that there will be challenges in managing all the issues around productivity, maintenance schedules and a whole sequence of events but that ultimately over all that must be the attention to the safety of the workforce involved. That issue will be at the heart of the helicopter safety steering group’s work, which can proceed to start to build confidence again within the North Sea sector.
I, too, have a close family member who works in the North Sea and is currently considering onshore work in the light of events in the past few years. However, given that the Norwegian sector, too, uses helicopter transport and appears to have a better safety record than Scotland’s, will the Government support cross-industry discussions with the Scandinavian authorities to see whether any lessons can be learned from their safety and maintenance regime?
That is a very practical and positive suggestion, and certainly we would support such an approach being taken.
I thank the cabinet secretary for his heartfelt statement, which will be appreciated in the north-east. Will he consider whether relatives of helicopter pilots and offshore workers should be represented at a senior level in the work of the helicopter safety steering group to give relatives a voice on the way forward for the industry?
Over the days after the incident, the trade unions were actively involved in the work of the helicopter safety steering group. Agreements were also reached about ensuring access for representatives of trade unions to be on the rigs and installations. It is a matter for the helicopter safety steering group to determine, but I think that wide workforce participation would be helpful, and it has been helpful here in ensuring that we have been able to take steps that have commanded unanimous support among all the interested parties and players.
Given the vital input of the trade unions to the work of the helicopter safety steering group in reaching the correct decisions that it has reached over the past few days, and given that it will conduct an inquiry, as the cabinet secretary said, will he agree to talk to the trade unions specifically about what further steps are required to restore confidence among the offshore workforce? In particular, will he do so before discussing further the remit of any future inquiry with law officers and UK ministers?
Since the incident, I have had a number of discussions with trade unionists about the issues. I will be happy to continue those discussions and to feed them in to any decision making that we arrive at for our purposes in relation to inquiries. I simply say that the helicopter safety steering group has demonstrated very good practice in the degree to which it has involved the workforce in the process that has been undertaken to date.
One of my constituents was on the flight that ditched in the North Sea with the tragic loss of life. Can the cabinet secretary assure those who want to continue to work offshore that alternatives to flying with Super Puma might be put in place?
It is a rather difficult issue for me to determine here. As I said in my response to Mr Johnstone, transfer from an oil rig to a boat is not without its risks, and I know that that will weigh heavily on the minds of offshore workers. I entirely understand the concern and unease that Dennis Robertson highlights on behalf of offshore workers. That simply makes the case for us to ensure that we use every approach that we can possibly use to build confidence, and that is the approach that the Government will take.
I would like to develop Nanette Milne’s point. Eurocopter, the manufacturer of the Super Puma fleet, has told me that its global safety record is excellent. However, it recognises that, with five incidents in as many years with flights between Scottish heliports and oil and gas installations, questions surely arise about whether something exceptional is going on in the area.
Has the Scottish Government considered comparative research about the safety record of similar aircraft travelling to and from oil and gas installations and how that compares with those of other countries? Will he work with his partners to establish whether this is indicative of any wider trend and, if so, seek to establish why?
Some of the answers to that question will perhaps lie in the issue that Mark McDonald raised about some of the considerations that are being made about the utilisation and the maintenance regimes of the Super Pumas, but that is me entering the realm of speculation about some of the issues that may be involved. We can encourage the helicopter safety steering group to take as broad a view as possible about the issues that are involved. The Government will be only too happy to support comparative research that may assist in shedding light on these issues.
Given the importance of the coastguard to offshore safety, which was highlighted by its involvement in the immediate response to this tragic event, can the cabinet secretary provide an update on staffing shortages in the coastguard service around Scotland?
In my discussions on the incident, I had a discussion on Friday, as I said, with the coastguard in Aberdeen. It was abundantly clear to me that the coastguard had sufficient resources to address this particular issue.
We have to be confident that the coastguard is in place at all times. My colleague, the Minister for Transport and Veterans, has been in communication with the United Kingdom Government about reports of understaffing at Scottish coastguard stations. Some vacancies have been advertised and the agency is involved in a recruitment process. This incident highlights the importance of ensuring that all the resources that need to be in place to reassure us about the effectiveness of any rescue operation are in place, and that will be part of the review that will be undertaken.
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