The Report of the Iraq Inquiry

earlier in this Section), and ACC Stephen White from the Police Service of Northern

Ireland (PSNI) to what became the post of Senior Police Adviser and Director of

Law and Order for CPA(South).389 Both individuals deployed as Acting Deputy Chief

Constables.390

447. The Annotated Agenda for the AHMGIR stated that the UK was “pursuing plans

to send MOD Police to begin basic training for police in Basra”, adding “this … will

subsequently be subsumed into an international policing team working in accordance

with an agreed coalition policing strategy”. It highlighted that the UK had offered two

Assistant Chief Constables to help develop the policing strategy, one in Baghdad, the

other in Basra.391

448. The AHMGIR met on 12 June and Ministers agreed that the MOD police contingent

should deploy to Basra as soon as practicable.392

449. The UND asked the MOD’s Iraq Secretariat to action this, stating that it would be

for the RMP’s Provost Marshal393 to judge the capacity of the military to accommodate

that contingent of police officers, who would be “reliant on military support for board,

accommodation, transport and security”.394

450. The FCO convened a meeting to discuss arrangements on 25 June. The only

record of the meeting identified by the Government was taken by CC Kernaghan.395

In the meeting it was agreed that, instead of deploying the full contingent of 21 MOD

officers, DCC White would deploy with three or four MOD police/PSNI officers and

conduct a training needs analysis.

451. CC Kernaghan stated that the only request for UK civilian police secondees

that had been relayed to ACPO at that time was for the two ACCs (ACC White and

ACC Brand). He highlighted the pressures on the domestic police service and the

limitations on its ability to provide large numbers of armed officers, noting that “any

request would require clear political approval and endorsement” before ACPO could

consider it, but added that ACPO “would seek to respond positively to UK Government

requests and had specialist capabilities, which might play a constructive role in police

reform generally”.

389 Email Kernaghan to Fox, 20 June 2003, ‘Assistant Chief Constables Selected by FCO for Secondment

to Iraq’.

390 Minute FCO [junior official] to Kernaghan, 2 July 2003, ‘ACPO Secondments to Iraq: Initial Terms of

Reference’.

391 Annotated Agenda, 12 June 2003, Ad Hoc Group on Iraq Rehabilitation meeting.

392 Minutes, 12 June 2003, Ad Hoc Group on Iraq Rehabilitation meeting.

393 Provost Marshal is the title given to a person in charge of a group of military police.

394 Minute FCO [junior official] to MOD [junior official], 13 June 2003, ‘Iraq Police Reform – MDP Trainers

for Basra’.

395 Minute Kernaghan to FCO [junior official], 26 June 2003, ‘Iraq and the UK Police Service – Meeting

25/6/03’.

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