The direction was that, an investigation cost £xx, invariably the MoD were held liable and so had to pay for rectification (for good reasons - another issue), so there was no mileage in conducting investigations in the first place.
Thank you tuc, how their airships must hate you spelling out their "Gross Negligence" (familiar phrase?) in this manner! Your testimony is, as always, at once fascinating and appalling. From my point of view the urgent need for an independent external MAA must date from that infamous direction (unless of course there is an even earlier candidate).