The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
1.
This Section
addresses analysis and findings in relation to the evidence set out
in
Sections
16.1 to 16.3, including:
•
the
pressures on Service Personnel, and the welfare support provided to
them
and their
families;
•
the
arrangements for providing medical care to Service Personnel;
and
•
the
arrangements for investigating the deaths of Service Personnel who
lost
their lives
on Operation TELIC and the support provided for bereaved
families.
2.
The provision
of military equipment is addressed in Sections 6.3 and
14.
•
In 2002, the
UK military was already operating at, and in some cases beyond,
the
limits of
the guidelines agreed in the 1998 Strategic
Defence Review. As a
result, the
Harmony
Guidelines were being breached for some units and specialist
trades.
•
The
Government’s decision to contribute a military force to a US-led
invasion of Iraq
inevitably
increased the risk that more Service Personnel would be put in
breach of
the Harmony
Guidelines. The issue of the potential pressure on Service
Personnel
was not a
consideration in the decision.
•
The MOD
planned and prepared effectively to provide medical care in support
of
Operation
TELIC.
•
There were
major improvements in the provision of medical care, mental
healthcare
and
rehabilitative care available to Service Personnel over the course
of Op TELIC.
•
Most of the
contacts between the MOD and bereaved families were conducted
with
sensitivity.
In a few cases, they were not. The MOD progressively improved how
it
engaged
with and supported bereaved families, in part driven by consistent
public
and
Ministerial pressure.
•
The
Government’s decision in 2006 to deploy a second medium scale
force
to Helmand
province in Afghanistan further increased the pressure on
Service
Personnel,
on elements of the MOD’s welfare, medical and investigative
systems,
and on the
coronial system.
•
Much of the
MOD’s and the Government’s effort from 2006 was focused
on
addressing
those pressures.
•
The MOD should
have planned and prepared to address those pressures, rather
than
react to
them.
•
The Government
should have acted sooner to address the backlog of
inquests
into the
deaths of Service Personnel. The support it did provide, in June
2006,
cleared the
backlog.
•
The MOD made a
number of improvements to the Board of Inquiry process,
but
some
proposals for more substantive reform (including the introduction
of an
independent
member) were not fully explored. The MOD significantly improved
the
way it
communicated with and supported bereaved families in relation to
military
investigations
and inquests.
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