The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
traditionally
tend to focus our contact and support. We will review our
procedures to
ensure that
in future sufficient account is taken of the needs of the wider
family.”62
92.
The MOD had a
wide range of internal investigations that could be carried
out
following a
fatality or other serious incident occurring on
operations.63
They
included:
•
Land
Accident Investigation Team (LAIT) investigations. The LAIT
could
respond to
incidents at very short notice and would normally report
within
30 days. It
sought to determine the cause of an accident and make
timely
recommendations
to prevent reoccurrence. It did not apportion blame. A
LAIT
report
could inform a Board of Inquiry/Service Inquiry, or substitute for
it where
the facts
of the case were sufficiently clear.
•
Service
Police investigations. Each
Service has its own Service Police force;
for the
Army, that is the Royal Military Police (RMP). The Special
Investigation
Branch
(SIB) of each Service Police force investigates the most
serious
cases. The
MOD told the Inquiry: “While the need for a prompt investigation
is
important,
and may be vital, there are no specific deadlines for the
completion
of Service
Police investigations.”
•
Boards of
Inquiry (BOIs). The purpose of a BOI was to establish the facts
about
an event,
to make recommendations to prevent a reoccurrence, and to
inform
any
decision on whether other action, such as administrative or
disciplinary
action,
should be initiated.64
BOIs would
not generally attribute blame.
93.
On 26 June
2003, Mr Hoon received an update on the SIB investigation into
the
death of a
member of the Armed Forces.65
94.
Mr Hoon’s
Private Office responded on 30 June, expressing
Mr Hoon’s
concern
that the individual’s next of kin had not yet been informed of the
result of the
post‑mortem,
in particular as the media might release that
information.
95.
Mr Hoon’s
Office also asked for an update on all the BOIs and other
investigations
that had
been launched into the deaths of Service Personnel killed in Iraq,
including
details of
the “timescales and inter‑dependencies on the investigations
reaching their
conclusions”.
62
Ministry of
Defence, The
Nation’s Commitment; Cross‑Government Support to our Armed Forces,
their
Families and
Veterans, July 2008, Cm
7424, para 2.34.
63
Paper MOD,
[undated], ‘Service Inquiries and Investigations’.
64
Paper
[SPEG], 19 July 2004, ‘Proposals for a Tri‑Service Inquiry
System’.
65
Minute
APS/Secretary of State [MOD] to PJHQ Civ Sec, 30 June 2003,
‘Completion of Main Stage
of SIB
Investigation into the Death of [name redacted] and Other
Action’.
94