It very much was a viable asset at one point and a lot of hard training by the crews and RAF Regiment personnel was carried out. We achieved BMQ the day before it was shelved by UK Goverment PLC.
Merlins pass CSAR trial - 3/28/2006 - Flight Global
“28 Sqn demonstrated a viable JPR capability by day and night and this result will now be progressed,” says the UK Ministry of Defence. Based at RAF Benson in Oxfordshire, 28 Sqn currently has four crews trained to undertake JPR tasks, with a plan to increase this total to nine.
Here's what you could have won which should answer many of the questions above:
http://proceedings.ndia.org/7040/19%20Bates.pdf