The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
1.
This Section
addresses:
•
the
military covenant and the Harmony Guidelines, which provided a
framework
for the
provision of welfare support to Service Personnel, including
Reservists,
and their
families;
•
the
provision of welfare support during deployments;
•
changes to
the welfare support available to Service Personnel,
including
Reservists,
and their families; and
•
the
consideration given to the effects on Service Personnel in
decisions to
deploy
troops, in particular in terms of the Harmony
Guidelines.
2.
The provision
of medical care, in particular for seriously injured Service
Personnel,
is addressed
in Section 16.2.
3.
The
preparations made for repatriating the bodies of those who lost
their lives
serving on
Operation TELIC, how their deaths were investigated, and the
support
provided
for bereaved families is addressed in Section 16.3.
4.
The problems
caused by deployments consistently exceeding the Defence
Planning
Assumptions
in respect of the provision of military equipment are addressed in
Sections
6.3 and
14.
5.
The decision
to deploy to Helmand province in Afghanistan, and the implications
of
that
decision, are addressed in Section 9.
6.
The concept of
a “covenant between the Army and its soldiers” was first
articulated
in the
March 2000 British Army publication, Values and
Standards of the British Army.1
The foreword
to that publication, written by General Sir Roger
Wheeler,2
Chief of
the
General
Staff, stated:
“As a
soldier in the British Army, much is expected of you. You may be
required
to deploy
on operations which will be dangerous, to obey orders which could
put
your life
at risk, and to live and work for long periods under extremely
challenging
conditions.
Your comrades, your commanders and ultimately the Nation will
depend
on your
courage, loyalty and commitment. They will rely on you to maintain
the
highest
standards of professionalism and self-discipline at all times. In
short, they
must trust
you and you need to trust them.
“This
two-way obligation forms a covenant between the Army and its
soldiers …
By volunteering
as a soldier in the British Army you accept that, by putting the
needs
1
Ministry of
Defence, Values and
Standards of the British Army, March
2000.
2
General Sir
Roger Wheeler was the military adviser to the Iraq
Inquiry.
2