No individuals have been blamed for a series of misjudgements in which 15 sailors and marines were seized by the Iranians in the Gulf and were later freed to tell - and in two cases sell - their story to the media.

The affair, that has become known as the Iran sailor fiasco, exposed a number of serious "shortcomings" in military procedures in the Gulf that led to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard taking the 14 men and one woman hostage, according to a brief summary of a classified report by a former commandant of the Royal Marines.

Lieutenant General Sir Rob Fulton, who was asked by Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, to review what went wrong, concluded that there was "no single gross failing or individual human error".

He also said that there was no case for disciplinary action against any of the individuals involved.

Mr Browne, who made a statement to the Commons this afternoon outlining the main features of General Fulton's report without giving any specific details, for operational reasons, said that the shortcomings included liaison with other coalition partners involved in patrolling the Shatt al-Arab waterway between Iraq and Iran, assessing risk, and training, both on an individual and a collective level.

"The report identifies a need to improve some training, specific to particular tasks, including boarding," said Mr Browne. "It also recommends that in future we use specialist rather than composite teams for boarding operations."

However, Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, the First Sea Lord, said at a press conference in the Ministry of Defence that an internal investigation was now under way into individual actions taken by officers and other individuals during the incident.

He said that "administrative action" could follow. This could result in a reprimand or a black mark on an individual's military career, or even dismissal.

The internal investigation will look at the decisions taken by officers on board HMS Cornwall in sending a boarding party into the Gulf on March 23. Admiral Band appeared to indicate that there would be no disciplinary action against the 15 sailors and marines who, he said, acted entirely within their rules of engagement.

Mr Browne also revealed the results of a second review, this one into the handling of the media following the release of the 15 sailors and marines.

The review, carried out by Tony Hall, chief executive of the Royal Opera House and a former BBC director of news and current affairs, was published in full. It also concluded that no single individual was to blame for allowing two of the boarding party - Leading Seaman Faye Turney, the only woman, and Operator Maintainer Arthur Batchelor, the youngest member of the group - to sell their stories to the media.

Mr Hall discovered that no-one appeared to be in charge of making the decision about the media handling, and he recommended that members of the Armed Forces should never again to be allowed to make money out of their stories by talking to the media.

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