I did have my name in the frame briefly for the SARH scoring team but perhaps my contentious views in the past might have queered the pitch in some peoples view-never mind, it sounds like it is going to be far from a barrel of laughs. And, since the mates of mine who are involved have generally similar viewpoints and experience, it won't affect the price of fish much and common sense will prevail.
There is a high probability that whatever aircraft end up filling the contract, they will be COMR (contractor owned and military registered) so that they can be crewed by both civvy and mil crews and can operate to military rules and regs (NVG for example). This solution is easy to achieve (the precedents already exist) and saves tedious battles with the CAA trying to work out how to marry the civilian rules to the SAR needs. With COMR you just adapt existing mil SOPs and crack on - you can even winch for training without being safe single engine!!
The problem with basing your aircraft selection on just one SAROP is that the next one will inevitably need the exact opposite - I think all the bidders are unanimous that a mix of large and small aircraft is the solution.