The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
531.
A funding bid
for £5.53m for a project to support the prison service in Southern
Iraq
from summer
2004 onwards stated that prisons strategy in MND(SE) was overseen
by
the
Director of Law and Order, who had been seconded from the UK Prison
Service.479
He was
supported by a Senior Prisons Adviser and an administrator. Prison
monitoring
was
undertaken by three members of the Military Prison Service plus two
members of
the
Territorial Army who were UK prison officers in their civilian
careers. The bid sought
to increase
staffing numbers to 15. All other staff working in the Correctional
Service
were Iraqi
locals.
532.
The bid stated
that there were approximately 800 prisoners in MND(SE).
Three
new prisons
were in development, with a total capacity of 1,650 places. All
prisons within
the
CPA(South) boundary run by the Iraqi Prison Service were overseen
and maintained
by the
UK.
533.
A letter dated
2 July confirmed that £1.7m had been agreed for that project by
the
Iraqi GCPP
Strategy Committee.480
534.
A record of
the Iraq Senior Officials Group on 12 December 2003 stated that
the
MOD
intended to deploy an additional infantry battalion to assist ICDC
training and more
RMP to
assist police training and mentoring.481
The record
stated: “The importance of
close
co‑ordination between departments on police initiatives was
stressed”.
535.
On 19
December, Mr Lee wrote to Mr Bowen, stating there had
been “some
surprise”
expressed at the forthcoming deployment of additional RMP to
MND(SE) and
“concern
about MOD’s alleged lack of consultation over this
deployment”.482
“For months
now the MOD has been assured by the FCO, and MND(SE) has
been
assured by
the CPA, that civil police were in the pipeline to provide training
and
mentoring …
All accepted the crucial importance of standing up the IPS as
rapidly
as possible
and thus the importance of providing proper civil police trainers
to train
civil
police. HMG [Her Majesty’s Government] and the CPA have not …
delivered …
we have
repeatedly stressed that we see police training as important and
that it is
best
delivered by civil police.”
479
Paper
Global Conflict Prevention Pool Project Bid Form, [undated, early
2004], ‘Prison Service Support
in Southern
Iraq’.
480
Letter
Carlin to Hayward, 2 July 2004, ‘Iraq Global Conflict Prevention
Pool’.
481
Minute
Cabinet Office [junior official] to Sheinwald, 15 December 2003,
‘Iraq: Senior Officials Group
[12 December]’.
482
Letter Lee
to Bowen, 19 December 2003, ‘Iraq: Police Support for
MND(SE)’.
172