The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
779.
Mr Jeffrey
explained that the paper proposed “a formal standing
cross‑Government
group” on
security and reported that he had agreed to create a new
Directorate of
Operational
Deployment Capability in PJHQ to provide a single focus within the
MOD.
780.
Mr Jeffrey
visited Iraq with Sir Peter Ricketts and Ms Susan Wardell,
DFID Director
General
Operations, from 4 to 7 December 2007.
781.
Mr Jeffrey’s
briefing included a paper from Mr Jon Day, MOD Director
General
Operational
Policy, about the use of MOD civilians in operational
theatres.495
Mr Day
expressed
concern about “whether we are right to continue the current course
in high
risk
environments such as Iraq and (increasingly) Afghanistan”. Concerns
about security
had led the
FCO to spend £37 million per annum on close protection for their
“relatively
small
number” of staff in Iraq. The security threat had
also:
“…
introduced a risk averse culture which is preventing MOD civilians
embedded in
the Embassy
and working in the Iraqi MOD from doing their jobs effectively – to
such
an extent
that I am increasingly inclined to start pulling them
out.
“… [T]he
growing difficulty we are having in filling posts suggests that
some – many
– will not
be as suitable as we would wish. I am not at all sure that all of
the civilians
I met
in Iraq would pass the new S2O fitness and health tests
…”
782.
Mr Jeffrey
described much of what was being done by MOD civilians in Iraq
as
“a legacy
of the more benign environments of the Balkans and post‑TELIC 1
euphoria”.
Nobody
appeared to be auditing the roles filled by civilians against the
much more
hostile
conditions that had prevailed until recently in Iraq.
Mr Jeffrey cited the example
of civilian
finance staff, whose roles could be taken by appropriately trained
service
personnel.
The MOD should minimise the number of non‑essential civilian posts
in
operational
theatres. A small number of posts would have to be filled by
civilians –
POLADs and
perhaps scientific and contracts staff – but the right people would
not
volunteer
“simply for the money”. The MOD should “listen to what the current
generation
say will
continue to motivate them”.
783.
Mr Jeffrey
advised discussing a coherent and sustainable approach to duty of
care
with the
FCO, observing that “at present we are less risk aware than the FCO
in Iraq but
more risk
aware in Afghanistan!”.
784.
Mr Benn
told the Inquiry:
“… you
need to have a common approach for everybody, not a difference
between
departments
and that includes a responsibility of the duty of care you have
for
consultants
and contractors whom you have asked to come and
work”.496
495
Minute DG
Op Pol to 2nd PUS [MOD], 9 November 2007, ‘MOD Civilians in
Operational Theatres’.
496
Public
hearing, 2 February 2010, pages 43‑44.
376