The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
836.
Ms Liz Davis,
DFID Human Resources Director, advised DFID officials:
“It is our
responsibility to ensure the health, safety and welfare of our
staff. A failure
to do so is
a breach of our responsibilities in law and potentially a failure
of our
common law
duty if we act negligently. This framework is not the same for
the
military.
The test at law will be:
•
have we
assessed the risks,
•
controlled
those risks as far as possible,
•
trained
staff where appropriate,
•
and
monitored the issues.” 535
837.
Those
responsibilities would normally be confined to “working time”, an
approach
Ms Davis
did not believe to be reasonable in Iraq. Ms Davis advised that, as
an
employer,
DFID could not be held responsible for the overall security
situation, but that
the picture
was clouded by the wider role of the UK Government.
838.
A table
prepared by the British Council in July itemised some of the
differences
between the
packages offered by the FCO and DFID (and the British Council),
including
grievance
procedures, “security leave” and entitlement to termination
benefits.536
839.
By October
2006, all but one of the Iraqi civilian staff working at the Basra
Palace
site had
been replaced by third country nationals because of “a growing
campaign of
intimidation
at the hands of extremists.” 537
Baghdad
Basra
Total
2004/05
370
251
621
2005/06
34
22
56
2006/07
34
2
36
2007/08
35
2
37
840.
In August
2007, faced with a further deterioration in security and growing
press
interest in
LE staff,539
officials
sought to establish “a coherent cross‑Whitehall
approach”
535
Email Davis
to Dinham, Foy, Shafik, 30 June 2006, ‘Local Staff’.
536
Email
Shafiq to Gibson, 26 July 2006, ‘TACOS for Iraq’.
537
Paper Iraq
Policy Unit, 25 October 2006, ‘Iraq: Basra Palace
Site’.
538
Letter
Fraser to Aldred, 22 July 2013, ‘Iraq Inquiry: Deployment of
Civilian Personnel: Statistics,
Annex C
– Iraq: Activity Recording – Schedule 5 Summary’.
539
BBC
News, 7 August
2007, Interpreters
‘abandoned’ in Iraq;
Times
Online, 7 August
2007,
Abandoned –
the 91 Iraqis who risked all.
540
Minute IPU
[junior official] to Private Secretary [FCO], 1 August 2007, ‘Iraq:
Locally Engaged Staff’.
386