This Lords Library briefing provides a brief timeline of principal developments during the process of the Iraq Inquiry (Chilcot). It particularly focusses on delays of the report’s publication.
Iraq Inquiry (Chilcot): Timeline of Principal Developments (133 KB , PDF)
Iraq Inquiry: Publication Date Announced
On 6 May 2016, Sir John Chilcot notified the Prime Minister, David Cameron, he proposed to publish the report by the Iraq Inquiry on 6 July 2016. Mr Cameron replied stating that his officials stood ready to assist on the arrangements for the publication.
Background
On 15 June 2009, the then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, announced the establishment of an independent privy counsellor committee of inquiry, chaired by Sir John Chilcot, to consider the UK’s military involvement in Iraq. It would cover the period from summer 2001, before military operations began in Iraq in March 2003, and the UK’s subsequent involvement, to the end of July 2009, when the last troops returned home.
The then Government had previously resisted repeated calls for an official, broad ranging inquiry to investigate the lead up to the Iraq war. However, in June 2009, Gordon Brown explained that, with the final British combat troops about to return from Iraq, it was “the right time” to ensure a “proper process” was in place to learn the lessons of the “complex and often controversial events of the last six years”. Given the complexity of the issues that the Inquiry would address, Gordon Brown added that he had been advised “it will take a year”.
The Iraq Inquiry (“Chilcot”) was officially launched by Sir John Chilcot on 30 July 2009. Sir John noted that it could not know how long the Inquiry would take “until it had read the background material and heard the evidence”. Public evidence hearings took place between 24 November 2009 and February 2011 but various parts of the process, such as agreeing the disclosure of documents, and providing individuals who may be criticised in the report with an opportunity to respond (“Maxwellisation”) are reported to have caused delays.
This Lords Library briefing provides a brief timeline of principal developments during the Inquiry’s process. It particularly focusses on delays of the report’s publication.
Iraq Inquiry (Chilcot): Timeline of Principal Developments (133 KB , PDF)
Public services productivity in the UK fell sharply during the Covid-19 pandemic and is yet to return to pre-pandemic levels. The Conservative government pledged new investment in an attempt to boost the effectiveness of public services prior to the general election. The new Labour government has also placed emphasis on this issue and has indicated further measures will be set out in the forthcoming budget statement.
A recent paper about UK foreign policy called for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to “modernise the working environment to set a future oriented culture”. It described the FCDO’s physical surroundings as “somewhat elitist and rooted in the past”. This briefing looks back at Lords Hansard to chart the House’s response to more radical plans in the 1960s that proposed a new foreign office building, which later formed part of a wider scheme for the redevelopment of Whitehall.
While international attention has largely been focused on the Middle East and Ukraine, the civil war in Sudan continues. The UN has characterised the conflict as the “world’s largest hunger crisis”. As peace negotiations stall, concerns are rising not only for the people of Sudan but also about the conflict spreading to neighbouring states.
