Tuc & Flip,
I'm not denying the DefStan, nor the ridiculous statement from the MoD regarding the knowledge of ESF (and the position it put me in, given my evidence) but the DefStan did not explicitly mandate it.
As Tuc has covered already the DefStans did (and still do) require quite a path to get there (eg threat assessment). Unfortunately, as Tuc has described elsewhere, the route to the DefStan in question was via a path that a number in the MoD believed was optional. I am not sure we have eradicated such tendencies.
If you give people wriggle-room and don't enforce standards then these events will repeat themselves. The MAA need to get this sorted before it becomes a self-licking lollipop. As it is, people are declaring ALARP & Tolerable having failed to achieve the minimum standards prescribed by the regulations. ALARP is becoming shorthand for 'doing the best we can right now with no money or people to fix the issue at hand', this is not what H-C had in mind.