The Mull of Kintyre Chinook accident has unresolved technical questions, however the whole operation that was being conducted at that time was itself a high risk flight path in adverse weather, and does not need the involvement of an inopportune technical event to have been hazardous. Heli ops at low level, poor visibility, and at speed are inherently elevated risk.
The RAAF recognised the efforts of the captain, however benefits were specified by existing policy and there was no unusual consequence as far as I recall. The RAAF has separately had a number of serious birdstrikes, some catastrophic, and some nearly so. An albatross impact on a P3 was probably one of the more fortunate ones, the bird penetrated the radome, took out the radar, pressure bulkhead, engine instruments, emergency shutdown handles (ESH) on a couple of engines, and bent the aft pressure bulkhead. #1 engine was already shutdown, and the ESH was pulled on one of the going engines. An F-111C was lost by a canopy strike at low level, which is not itself uncommon, but the F-111 was designed to operate in that environment, and the birds still won.
Pre and post the Kinloss accident, operations continued around the world with operations around times of elevated bird activity, and this remains the case with airlines today. The B737 arrival into Ciampino with severe dual engine damage, Sully over NYC, etc indicate that birdstrikes continue to be a hazard irrespective of engine design.
The UK MOD's death benefits is unfamiliar to me, but if the govt doesn't cover casualties in operations, then it would still seem odd that a state of the union, Scotland, should be the liable party. I'm missing the point on the rationale for this thread, might just be the Scottish accent. The birds don't read the report, and while probability is certainly higher around dawn and dusk, strikes happen at all times.