The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
in breach
of the Harmony Guidelines. The issue of the potential pressure
on
Service
Personnel was not a consideration in the decision.
•
The MOD
planned and prepared effectively to provide medical care in
support
of Operation
TELIC.
•
There were
major improvements in the provision of medical care,
mental
healthcare
and rehabilitative care available to Service Personnel over the
course
of Op
TELIC.
•
Most of the
contacts between the MOD and bereaved families were
conducted
with
sensitivity. In a few cases, they were not. The MOD progressively
improved
how it
engaged with and supported bereaved families, in part driven
by
consistent
public and Ministerial pressure.
•
The
Government’s decision in 2006 to deploy a second medium scale
force
to Helmand
province in Afghanistan further increased the pressure on
Service
Personnel,
on elements of the MOD’s welfare, medical and
investigative
systems,
and the coronial system.
•
Much of the
MOD’s and the Government’s effort from 2006 was focused
on
addressing
those pressures.
•
The MOD
should have planned and prepared to address those pressures,
rather
than react
to them.
•
The
Government should have acted sooner to address the backlog of
inquests
into the
deaths of Service Personnel. The support it did provide, in June
2006,
cleared the
backlog.
•
The MOD
made a number of improvements to the Board of Inquiry process,
but
some
proposals for more substantive reform (including the introduction
of an
independent
member) were not fully explored. The MOD significantly
improved
the way it
communicated with and supported bereaved families in relation
to
military
investigations and inquests.
•
The MOD was
less effective at providing support to Service Personnel who
were
mobilised
individually (a category which included almost all Reservists) and
their
families,
than to formed units.
824.
The following
key findings are from Section 17:
•
The Inquiry
considers that a Government has a responsibility to make
every
reasonable
effort to understand the likely and actual effects of its military
actions
on
civilians.
•
In the
months before the invasion, Mr Blair emphasised the need to
minimise
the number
of civilian casualties arising from an invasion of Iraq. The
MOD’s
responses
offered reassurance based on the tight targeting
procedures
governing
the air campaign.
128