The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
23.
The papers
produced to inform those seminars are available on the
Inquiry’s
website.
24.
The foundation
for the Inquiry’s conclusions is an account of the
decisions
and actions
that were taken by the UK between 2001 and 2009 in relation to
Iraq.
As
Mr Brown told the House of Commons in 2009, the scope of this
account
is unprecedented
in duration and breadth and constitutes a large part of
the
Inquiry’s Report.
25.
There are a
number of issues that have not been addressed in the Report
because
they lie
outside the scope of the Inquiry or are subject to continuing
investigation
elsewhere.
They include:
•
Responsibility
for the events of 11 September 2001.
•
The UK’s
role in Afghanistan, except where decisions on Afghanistan had
an
impact on
options available in Iraq, or where the Government sought to
apply
lessons
from Afghanistan in Iraq.
•
The
circumstances surrounding the death of Dr David Kelly. The Inquiry
has no
statutory
powers and is not qualified to decide on Coronial
matters.
•
The
circumstances surrounding the deaths of individual Service
Personnel.
•
The effect
of the sanctions regime on the civilian population of Iraq,
except
where it
had an impact on UK policy on Iraq in the period before the
invasion.
•
The
compulsory return of asylum seekers from the UK to Iraq is touched
on,
but not
examined in detail.
•
The details
of the Government’s operational response to the kidnapping of
UK
citizens.
26.
One further
aspect of the UK’s involvement in Iraq which has generated a great
deal
of public
concern has been the alleged, and in some instances proven, ill
treatment of
detainees.
27.
The Inquiry’s
Terms of Reference did not require it to examine individual cases
of
detention;
nor, as a non-statutory public inquiry, was it constituted or
equipped to do so.
The Inquiry
took the view, moreover, that its role was to consider the
development and
implementation
of government policy, rather than to examine operational decisions
and
actions
affecting individual cases.
28.
The Inquiry
did consider whether it might examine systemic issues relating to
the
detention
and treatment of military and civilian prisoners. For the reasons
set out below,
it was
decided not to do so.
29.
When the
Inquiry was established in July 2009, the Government had
already
established
a Public Inquiry led by Sir William Gage to investigate the death,
on
6