Inquiry secrecy criticised at PMQs
By Chris Ames
According to the Times
“Gordon Brown was accused of trying to suffocate the Iraq Inquiry today by giving individual Whitehall departments the power to veto sections of the final report.
“When the Prime Minister announced the inquiry, he claimed that national security would be the only legitimate barrier to full disclosure in Sir John Chilcot’s report into the Iraq war. A set of protocols published on the Cabinet Office website, however, indicates that a tranche of additional restrictions have been imposed.
“The guidelines issued to Sir John and his team set out nine extra restrictions, including commercial and economic interests, that would allow a government agency or department to remove a section from the report.”
“Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, used the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions session to ask Mr Brown why details could be suppressed ‘which have nothing to do with national security’. He said that the protocol list ‘outrageously gives Whitehall departments individual rights of veto’.
“‘It is vital that the Iraq Inquiry, which started its work this week, is able to reveal the full truth about the decisions leading up to the invasion of Iraq,’ he said.
“‘And how on earth are we, and the whole country, going to hear about the whole truth about decisions leading up to the invasion of Iraq if the inquiry is being suffocated on day one by your Government’s shameful culture of secrecy?’”
This picks up on my own criticisms from a few weeks back.