15.1 | Civilian personnel

861. The Inquiry asked government departments to provide quarterly data on

the numbers, roles and location, of civilian staff and contractors deployed to Iraq

between 2003 and 2009.557

862. In the case of the FCO, the request included information on secondees from other

government departments for whom the FCO had duty of care responsibilities.

863. None of the three principal departments responsible for the deployment of civilians

(the FCO, the MOD and DFID) was able to provide data in the form requested.

864. FCO data were drawn principally from the department’s human resources (HR)

database, Prism. An initial return covering the period from March 2003 to June 2009 was

submitted to the Inquiry in 2011.558 In 2013, the FCO updated the figures for March 2004

to June 2009.559

865. The Prism figures indicate the number of FCO staff deployed to bilateral FCO

missions in Iraq, but do not include FCO contractors, staff from other government

departments for whom the FCO was responsible, or FCO staff seconded to ORHA

or the CPA.

866. The FCO supplemented the Prism material with miscellaneous data from other

sources, including telephone lists and policy documents, which provided occasional

snapshots of overall numbers of civilians deployed by the FCO and other departments,

excluding support for Op TELIC.

867. Sir Simon Fraser, the FCO PUS from 2010 to 2015, told the Inquiry that the

FCO had learned lessons from the experience of Iraq and that “the current recording

system in FCO is both more robust, more complete and more accurate than was

previously the case”.560

868. The MOD provided average quarterly figures for three groups of civilians

deployed in support of Op TELIC: MOD staff; staff from other government departments;

and contractors.561

869. The figures for 2003 to 2006 are drawn from returns compiled by individual

military units and based on physical counts of civilians present. The returns were

collated by PJHQ.

557 Letter Aldred to Heads of Iraq Inquiry Departmental Liaison Units, 8 April 2011, ‘Iraq Inquiry – Role of

Civilians in Iraq’.

558 Letter FCO to Iraq Inquiry, 27 May 2011, ‘Iraq Inquiry – Role of Civilians in Iraq’ attaching Table,

[untitled].

559 Letter Fraser to Aldred, 22 July 2013, ‘Iraq Inquiry: Deployment of Civilian Personnel: Statistics’.

560 Letter Fraser to Aldred, 22 July 2013, ‘Iraq Inquiry: Deployment of Civilian Personnel: Statistics’.

561 Letter Ministry of Defence to Iraq Inquiry, 31 May 2013, ‘Civilian Roles in Iraq’.

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