§ 25. Mr. CranTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether any further progress has been made in his Department's review of Britain's defence commitments.
§ Mr. Archie HamiltonAs my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State indicated on 21 January,Official Report, column 103, we are continuing to study the proposals in "Options for Change" which were announced last July. We intend to proceed with rationalisation and other support changes where these do not affect our efforts in the Gulf.
The Gulf conflict does not invalidate the approach we took last summer, which foresaw the need to retain the capability to react to such emergencies. However, the lessons learnt in the Gulf will be incorporated in our planning in due course.