Letter from Des Browne MP, Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence

Thank you for your letter of 23 April 2007 requesting a copy of the report into the circumstances surrounding the detention of the 15 UK personnel in the Gulf.

I am happy to share with the Foreign Affairs Committee any element of the report which would help inform your inquiry. However, as I said in my statement on 16 April, its main focus will be on the details of our military posture on operations and which must, therefore, be seen only by those with a strict need to know. That is why I have agreed to expose the full report only to the Defence Select Committee.

I am copying this to James Arbuthnot.