The capture of 15 Royal Navy personnel by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard during an operation in the Gulf in March was an embarrassment to the country, a report by the Commons Defence Committee said yesterday.

Royal Navy commanders involved in the mission that led to the seizure of eight sailors and seven Royal Marines were also castigated for a “lapse in operational focus” and a “widespread failure of situational awareness”.

The MPs also criticised officials involved in the decision to allow two of the hostages to sell their stories to the media. This was “a serious mistake and deeply damaging to the reputation of the Royal Navy”, the MPs said.

Although Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, had apologised, “this should not absolve others from blame”, the MPs said. The 15 personnel who were held hostage for 13 days had all been operating from HMS Cornwall, a Type 22 frigate, commanded by Commodore Nick Lambert.

The MPs on the Defence Committee said that although no one had been court-martialled, “formal administrative action” had been taken against a number of Service personnel “across a wide spectrum of ranks”. Administrative action can mean a letter of reprimand, but in some cases it can lead to an ending of promotion prospects and even discharge. On the question of the hostage stories being sold, the committee said: “We were told that no action had been taken against individuals, military or civilian, for failures relating to media handling. Given the catalogue of serious mistakes made, this is unacceptable.”

The committee’s report said that there had been “weaknesses in intelligence, in communications, in doctrine and in training”. But having reviewed the Ministry of Defence’s action plan in response to an inquiry by Lieutenant-General Sir Rob Fulton, the MPs said that they were satisfied that steps were being taken to address the weaknesses exposed by the incident.

James Arbuthnot, chairman of the committee and a former Conservative Defence Minister, said: “The capture of Royal Navy personnel last March was an embarrassment to the whole country and the way it was handled afterwards compounded the embarrassment. People around the country, including many retired Service people, have been asking how it could have come about.”

The committee said that a lack of resources was not the direct cause of the incident on March 23. The 15 sailors and marines were outgunned by the Revolutionary Guard and gave up without firing a shot. They had been engaged in a benign boarding of a merchant vessel in the Gulf, checking it for contraband or weapons.

However, the MPs said they wanted reassurance that the MoD’s “current budgetary uncertainty does not impede the implementation of the action plan”. Liam Fox, the Shadow Defence Secretary, said: “This fiasco seriously damaged the reputation of the Royal Navy and the standing of this country abroad.”

— The Army is losing the equivalent of a battalion of soldiers every year because they are being discharged for taking drugs. The number of soldiers who tested positive for drugs rose from 517 in 2003 to 769 last year — and those caught taking cocaine increased fourfold, according to a study by the Royal United Services Institute in London. “The issue of an increasing number of drug-related discharges . . . needs to be examined by the MoD,” Christianne Tipping, a defence management analyst at the institute, said.

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