Wow, so many people getting all 'precious' about winching/hoisting. A hoist has many uses - not all associated with SAR, so let's forget any idea that the Police ASUs or the AAs are going to steal work from the brave lads/lasses on MilSAR or MCA SAR. Frankly the type of jobs that the S61s and Sea Kings are best at are far too demanding in terms of range/payload/hoisting for the smaller 902/135/109/145. 'Horses for courses'. Having said that, there is a growing interest in employing smaller hoist fitted helicopters in the Urban SAR environment (whatever that means), and the occasional use of a hoist to deploy personnel or recover a casualty is perfectly achievable. Of course there is a training burden - nobody is suggesting that hoisting can be achieved by 'ab-initios' with only a few cycles under their belts; however, there is also no requirement to spend 15 - 20 hrs a month practising Decks, Drums, AFCS Ops, Sits, NVG, etc. Lets put this in perspective. Once a helicopter unit (Police or AA) has received a basic HHO course and properly grasped the idea of good hoist husbandry, effective risk mitigation, and good H&S awareness, there is no reason why they shouldn't conduct hoisting ops. Now the CAA have got a difficult task when it comes to dealing with exemptions to the regs, etc: principally because there is no State legislation that covers hoist training. That said, JAR-OPS 3.005(h) is a good benchmark and one that will be applied if required.
For those guys in RAF SAR who are getting all defensive - I sympathise. I share your dissatisfaction with the current situation and hate seeing those people at the MCA picking over the bones of what has been a wonderfully professional SAR service for many years. But please don't get carried away with the idea that only MilSAR pilots and rearcrew can do hoisting. There are many small civvy operators in Europe who are using BK117/EC135/EC145/A109 to conduct thousands of rescues a year in the Alps and other mountain areas. Stop burrying your heads in the sand and recognise that other operators have something to offer.