The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
46.
Investigations
by the MOD and coroners into the deaths of Service
Personnel
serving on
Op TELIC could be very slow, and in one case lasted for more
than
four years.
47.
The Inquiry
considered how the three major elements of the investigative
process –
Service
Police investigations, Boards of Inquiry (BOIs), and inquests –
changed
after 2003.
48.
The earliest
concerns about the military’s investigative process emerged
in
September
2003. Mr Adam Ingram, Minister of State for the Armed Forces,
expressed
his concern
that the next of kin of deceased Service Personnel increasingly
perceived
that the
MOD’s investigations lacked focus and were too slow, and that the
MOD did not
keep them
informed of progress.
49.
The following
month, Lt Gen Palmer advised that the Army’s Royal Military
Police
(RMP) was
“swamped” with the volume of work in Iraq.9
The major
challenge was the
difficult
working environment, including the need for force protection for
Service Police
and a
potentially hostile population. The Army’s policy of holding
investigations into all
fatalities
added to the pressure on the RMP.
50.
Reviews of
Service Police investigations in October 2004 and April 2005
found
that there
were still delays in Service Police investigations, but did not
recommend any
substantial
changes to the investigative process. The October 2004 review
concluded
that
investigations could be complex and “speed must not be at the
expense of quality”.10
51.
The purpose of
a military BOI was to establish the facts about an event and to
make
recommendations
to prevent a recurrence.
52.
In response to
Mr Ingram’s concern over the MOD’s investigative process, the
MOD
had, by
June 2004:
•
shortened
the time allowed for completing BOIs to 14 weeks;
•
strengthened
the role of the BOI President;
•
introduced
measures to improve the management of BOIs by each Service;
and
•
introduced
a series of measures to improve communications with
bereaved
families on
progress with the entire Service Police investigation and
BOI
process.
9
Minute
Palmer to VCDS, 17 October 2003, ‘TELIC Incidents:
Investigations’.
10
Report
Loudon, 12 October 2004, ‘Review of Service Police Investigations
on Operations’.
160