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Ministry of Defence

Answer

Mr. Tracey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he expects to make available to the House the findings of the further investigation into the advice given to Defence Ministers concerning organophosphate pesticide used during the Gulf war, announced by the Minister of State for the Armed Forces on 10 December 1996, Official Report, column 122. [18140] Mr. Soames: The further investigation has now been completed. It came to the following conclusions: (a) The answers to six PQs in 1994 concerning pesticide usage during Op Granby were incorrect because Ministers were given flawed advice by Service and Civil Service staff, who had obtained and used inaccurate information when preparing the draft answers. (b) The submission of flawed advice concerning pesticides to Ministers in July 1994 and again in November 1994, together with repeated submissions of the same inaccurate information at later dates, constituted a fundamental failure of the working practices adopted by Service and Civil Service staff within the area of MoD concerned. (c) As a result of internal confusion about the subject, MoD gave incomplete information to the HCDC in a memorandum dated 9 December 1994 concerning the non-OP pesticides which had been used during Op Granby. (d) In the course of 1995, MoD Service and Civil Service staff received a number of indications that during the Gulf War British troops might have obtained locally and also used some OP pesticides, but this information was neither assessed nor followed up properly. (e) No later than early June 1996, some MoD Service and Civil Service staff knew that OP pesticides had been used more extensively during Op Granby than had previously been reported and that this new information would embarrass the Department. However, appropriate action was not taken. (f) Although new information concerning OP pesticide usage during Op Granby had emerged much earlier, MoD Service and Civil Service staff failed to provide Ministers with appropriate written advice on the subject until 25 September 1996. Thereafter Parliament was informed at the earliest opportunity that incorrect statements had been made. The investigation also identified an additional occasion, in March 1995, when a ministerial private office received advice which included material relating to possible OP pesticide use in the Gulf war. A memorandum concerning the investigation is being published today and a copy has been placed in the Library of the House, together with a copy of my letter to the Chairman of the Defence Select Committee dated 20 February 1997. Taken together, the six conclusions constitute serious failures in the formulation of advice within the MOD. I must once again apologise for the way in which flawed advice was presented to Parliament.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

18140; 291 c252-3W

Session

1996-97

Subjects

Armed forces Iraq-Kuwait conflict Medicine Research Gulf War syndrome Organophosphates