15.1 | Civilian
personnel
by the
difficulty of getting out of Iraq, resulting in people not taking
their leave, and by
the shortage
of staff to cover work while people were on leave.
694.
Those who had
been in Iraq between mid‑2004 and mid‑2007 commented
that
covering
absences under the 6+2 model required a much higher degree of
flexibility
than was
normal for the civil service, and that two‑week absences had a
negative
impact on
civilians’ credibility with external interlocutors, including the
UK military.
6+2 had
the advantage that it allowed those with families to deploy and
made it possible
to sustain
tours of one to two years, providing greater continuity than the
six months
(with a
one‑week break) served by MOD civilians.
695.
There was also
thought to have been an impact on relationships with
Iraqi
interlocutors,
who were frustrated with frequent and apparently ill‑planned
changes
of UK
personnel. In some cases there was a suspicion that Iraqis had
exploited the
situation,
for example by misrepresenting what had been agreed
previously.
696.
Some
individuals who had been in Iraq from mid‑2007 suggested that, at
least
initially,
departments were too rigid about tour lengths. Those wanting to
extend beyond
12 months
had been forced by their departments to return. Different tour
lengths for
MOD
civilians continued to inhibit business and the building of
relationships during this
period. The
group concluded that different jobs called for different tour
lengths.
697.
Between 2003
and 2009, departments debriefed some civilian staff returning
from
Iraq in
order to learn operational lessons from their
experience.
698.
Departments
took steps to improve the debriefing process, but do not appear
to
have
established a comprehensive or consistent approach.
699.
At the AHMGIR
on 24 July 2003, Mr Straw asked the Cabinet Office and the
IPU
to devise
a debriefing system for secondees to Iraq.455
700.
On 7 August,
officials informed the AHMGIR that the IPU was debriefing the
first
wave of
returning UK secondees to the CPA.456
701.
The FCO drew
on the contributions of returning secondees for its November
2003
review of
pre‑deployment training and terms and conditions for civilian
staff, described
later in
this Section.457
702.
Separately,
the Cabinet Office Corporate Development Group (CDG)
began
assessing
the benefits of CPA secondments to staff and departments. The aim
was
455
Minutes, 24
July 2003, Ad Hoc Group on Iraq Rehabilitation
meeting.
456 Annotated
Agenda, 7 August 2003, Ad Hoc Group on Iraq Rehabilitation
meeting.
457
Letter Jay
to Chakrabarti, 11 November 2003, ‘Security of UK Civilian
Secondees in Iraq’ attaching
Paper,
‘Iraq: Civilian Staff: Training, Briefing, Security and
Insurance’.
363