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Iraq: Fatal Shootings of Sergeant Steven Roberts and Zaher Zaher

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Astor, for his welcome for this Statement. I thought that it was right to come to the House to explain, and to explain as fully as I have sought to do, the circumstances, because of the interest that they have already garnered. I welcome the sympathy that he has expressed, which of course I share, particularly to Mrs Roberts. The noble Lords, Lord Astor and Lord Thomas—who also expressed sympathy—both referred to the circumstances of the protective equipment issued. It is, of course, a fact that Sergeant Roberts was not wearing an inserted Kevlar plate, or plates, at the time of the incident. That, of course, is a matter for the Ministry of Defence, as both noble Lords would accept. The noble Lord, Lord Thomas, referred to the legal action that is already taking place. I do not therefore propose to say anything more about that aspect, save to respond to the noble Lord’s question. As I understood it, he raised the question of the potential criminal responsibility of the Ministry of Defence. The Ministry of Defence is not, of course, a corporate body in any event and, because of Crown immunity, it would not in any event be subject to the sort of offence that he raises. That is a preliminary issue before one ever gets into further consideration—and I am not going to do that on my feet, or respond on the particular issues that he raised. He is absolutely right to say that what has been considered has been the potential criminal responsibility of the soldiers involved, and that has been dealt with. Questions have been raised about the time taken to reach this conclusion. As I made clear in the Statement, I personally very much regret that. There are a number of reasons why that is so, including the fact that because of differences of view—let me put it no higher than that—a full investigation by the SIB, including the sort of elements that the noble Lord, Lord Thomas, refers to, did not initially take place. As I said in my Statement, it would have been much better had it done so, although I do not regard the chain of command as having acted unlawfully in having taken the view that it did. I believe that in this sort of incident, because two people died in obviously difficult circumstances, it would have been right to have a full investigation, so that proper conclusions could be reached. I have also been asked what steps are being taken to deal with two matters. First, in relation to the ability of the SIB of the Royal Military Police to deal with complicated investigations of this kind, I refer the House to what I said in my Statement. The noble Lord, Lord Astor, asked me whether, as superintending Minister, I could give an assurance to the House about the quality of the investigators. I am not responsible for the investigators—neither the military nor the civilian investigators. That remains, in the case of the military investigators, a matter for the Ministry of Defence. My superintending authority extends only to the prosecuting authority, but I am assured by my colleagues, with whom I have discussed this matter, as I said in my Statement, that additional resources have been provided. Moreover, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary has begun a thematic inspection of the SIB, which will report later this year. I personally very much welcome that, as it will enable an objective professional evaluation to be made of what the position is. As for delay more generally, I indicated in my Statement a number of steps that are in progress, which I believe will reduce delay. In this particular instance, the initial decision not to allow a full investigation, the delay in then getting that resolved, and the difficulties that the Metropolitan Police had in conducting their inquiries, have all contributed to a delay which, overall, I do not ever want to see again in a case such as this one. We must work hard to ensure that that is so. I hope that that covers essentially the questions raised by both noble Lords. I thank them otherwise for the comments that they have made.