The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
52.
When he
established the Inquiry, Mr Brown stated that it would have access
to all
government
records. The Inquiry has received more than 150,000 such
documents
during the
course of its work. Where it has not been possible for the relevant
department
to supply a
document that the Inquiry believes existed, that is indicated in
the text.
The Inquiry
has no reason to believe that any document has been deliberately
withheld.
53.
The Inquiry
has examined material produced before summer 2001 and after
July
2009 where
that is necessary for a full understanding of the Government’s
response
to events
between those dates.
54.
The Inquiry’s
access to, and ability to publish material from, documents
produced
by the UK
Government has been governed by the Protocol
between the Iraq Inquiry
and Her
Majesty’s Government regarding Documents and Other Written and
Electronic
Information. The
Protocol can be found on the Inquiry’s website and on
www.gov.uk.
It applies
a test to determine when material may be disclosed publicly which
is specific
to this
Inquiry, and which differs from the criteria set by the Freedom of
Information Act
2000.
55.
Throughout its
duration, the Inquiry has sought the Government’s permission
to
publish
material under the terms of the Protocol. It has done so
by:
•
Asking for
the declassification of whole documents where they are
considered
to be
particularly significant. Around 1,800 of these documents,
including
any
redactions required by the Government, appear on the Inquiry’s
website
alongside
this Report. Redactions appear as blank white space, not as
black
•
Asking for
agreement to disclose a limited amount of material from
documents,
either in
the form of a directly quoted extract, a summary of the
document’s
contents
(known as a “gist”) or a mixture of the two. The source for a quote
or
gist is
included as a footnote in the Report. The Inquiry has used material
from
around
7,000 documents in this way.
56.
The material
agreed by the Government for disclosure by the Inquiry is
highly
unusual in
its scale and sensitivity.
57.
Some
categories of document to which the Inquiry considered it necessary
to refer
raise
difficult issues of principle for the Government.
58.
This Report
therefore contains, exceptionally, material of a kind which
would
normally be
regarded as highly sensitive and confidential,
including:
•
extracts
from Cabinet minutes;
13
In JIC
Assessments, which have been retyped by the Inquiry at the
Government’s request, redactions
appear as
“[…]”.
10