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Nimrod Review

Essentially, Mr Haddon-Cave was given a brief that allowed him to choose who he interviewed. I do not know or understand his thinking. He interviewed those he thought it was appropriate to interview. I was also pressed on non-executive directors. In this complex matter it is all too easy to make mistakes, but I understand that it is intended that the MAA will have non-executive directors, or at least a director of part of its administration. If I am wrong on that, I shall, of course, write to noble Lords to clarify the matter. We all take the gravity of this situation. Any accident is sad, but this was extremely sad. I hope that the Ministry of Defence has not been slow in accepting its responsibility. It is also true that the MoD has for some years been on an improving trend in terms of safety practices. Certainly, if one looks at the response to this tragic accident and goes through the work on the specific fleet, and looks at how the Ministry of Defence is following up the work on all fleets to assure safety and to see how it might be applied to other platforms, there is real change. Together the MAA and that change will improve and assure safety in the defence environment.