The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
10.
Sir Roger and
Dame Rosalyn provided advice to the Committee in areas where
their
specialist
professional knowledge was required to understand fully the issues
involved.
They
contributed to the development of detailed lines of questioning
ahead of public
hearings
and offered expert advice on the interpretation of evidence in
relevant areas
of the
Inquiry’s work as the Inquiry Committee formulated its
conclusions.
11.
Throughout its
work, the Inquiry has been supported by a small
Secretariat.
Members of
staff have been drawn from a range of government departments,
including
the Cabinet
Office, the Department for International Development (DFID), the
Foreign
and
Commonwealth Office (FCO), the Home Office, the Ministry of Defence
(MOD),
the
Ministry of Justice and the Serious Fraud Office. The Inquiry has
employed a small
number of
support staff from outside government and from time to time has
also drawn
on a small
amount of additional resource from within the Civil
Service.
12.
The
Secretariat was headed by Ms Margaret Aldred, who was named as
Secretary
to the
Inquiry in July 2009. The Inquiry had three Deputy Secretaries
during the course
of its work
– Ms Alicia Forsyth (2009 to 2011), Ms Claire Salters (2009 to
2012) and
Ms
Katharine Hammond (2012 to 2016) – and two Legal Advisers – Ms
Sarah Goom
(2009 to
2012) and Mr Stephen Myers (2011 to 2016).
13.
The
Secretariat has provided essential administrative, logistical and
research
assistance
to the Inquiry in arranging and managing hearing sessions;
obtaining,
processing
and declassifying evidence; and preparing material for
consideration by
the Inquiry
Committee.
14.
From the
start, the Inquiry has sought to be transparent about potential
conflicts
of interest
and has taken steps to ensure that they have not affected its work.
In this,
the
Committee and Secretariat have been conscious of the Civil Service
core values
of
integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality.
15.
All members of
the Committee have had long careers in which they have at
times
worked in
or with government and in other areas of public affairs. Their
experience
means that
many of the witnesses who gave evidence to the Inquiry were
previously
known to
members of the Committee as colleagues or professional contacts.
The
Inquiry has
been scrupulous to ensure that no-one has received different or
preferential
treatment
as a result.
16.
Sir Roderic
Lyne served as British Ambassador to the Russian Federation
between
2000 and
2004, during which time he acted on UK Government instructions in
relation
to Iraq and
reported in several telegrams on the Russian Government’s
approach.
Those
telegrams have been declassified and are published alongside the
Report.
17.
On 18 January
2010, the Inquiry published a letter on its website from Sir
Lawrence
Freedman to
Sir John Chilcot outlining the advice he provided ahead of Mr
Blair’s
4