"The debate was about renewing the Trident system" - Jim Carroll

Wrong Jim the debate was about replacing four ageing submarines coming to the end of their operational life in order that the United Kingdom could retain it's nuclear deterrent.

I would rather hope that Government Ministers have more to do than correct ill-informed and badly written copy of the press.

"surely the fault that the missile apparently developed during the test in question should have been brought to attention of parliament before the vote." - DtG

It was not the missile that was being tested DtG, it was the submarine that had just completed an extensive refit. Lockheed-Martin are responsible for all the missiles deployed by both USN and RN in the Atlantic, no doubt they have their own methods and means of testing those missiles, at the time of the debate as to whether or not to replace the Vanguard-Class it is not known whether or not what went wrong with the missile had been identified by Lockheed-Martin.

"If the reliability of the missile is in doubt, then the future of the missile should be reviewed." - DtG

IF being the operative word there, however, the reliability of the missile is not in doubt. The Trident missile has been operational since 1979 Trident I up until 2005 and the Trident II since 2005. Since that year there have been 161 successful tests of the missile, additionally in less than 10 instances range systems that monitor and govern the tests detected anomalies that have resulted in missile self-destruct protocols being triggered as a safety measure.