§ Mr. SwayneTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what instructions he gave to joint chiefs of staff not to proceed with exercise Saif Sareea 2; and if he will make a statement. [19375]
§ Mr. HoonNone. The Ministry of Defence regularly reviews its forward programme and re-evaluates all commitments in the defence plan to ensure that they represent good value for money. Given its scale and importance, Exercise Saif Sareea 2 was kept under particularly careful review to ensure that it met this criteria and the armed forces training requirements. In the early part of 2000 a number of options for the exercise were investigated as part of this process. The review confirmed the importance of carrying out an exercise on this scale and at this distance from the UK. Recent events have proved this to be the case.