Written question asked by Lynne Jones (Labour) on Tuesday, 31 August 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 13 September 2004. It was answered by Denis MacShane (Labour) on Monday, 13 September 2004 on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 10th February 2004, 417 c1303W, on Iraq, what methodology was used to assess that there was no new information contained in the quantities of documents that remained to be translated; and whether all the documents that formed the declaration have now been translated.

Answer: Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the answer of 10 February 2004, Official Report, column 1303W, on Iraq, what methodology was used to assess that there was no new information contained in the quantities of documents that remained to be translated; and whether all the documents that formed the declaration have now been translated. [187392] Mr. MacShane: In the interests of speed, the process of analysing the Iraqi declaration concentrated on identifying key words and passages to which priority translation was given. It quickly became clear that Iraq had not provided information on the outstanding disarmament issues that had been identified by the UN Special Commission in their final report. Translation of the declaration was complete by mid- March 2003.

Secondary information