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Iraq Inquiry

I will return to the point about the public sessions. First, I want to deal with the scope of the inquiry. The concern has been to ensure that the inquiry is able to address itself to all aspects of preparation for the military campaign, the military campaign itself, and post-conflict stabilisation and reconstruction. That is important. At various points, there have been allegations, for example, that the inquiry would not be able to look at the run-up to the war, or the decisions taken in Basra in 2006 to 2008. Those concerns are not well founded. The Chilcot inquiry has the widest possible remit. The committee will be free not just to examine all the evidence, as I will set out, but to pursue what it considers are the most important issues. The scope is deliberately not limited. As the Prime Minister said last week:""No inquiry has looked at such a long period, and no inquiry has the powers to look in so much breadth".—[Official Report, 15 June 2009; Vol. 494, c. 23.]" Secondly, on the question of independence, the Prime Minister wrote to Sir John Chilcot on 17 June assuring him of the Government's commitment to a thorough and independent inquiry. Sir John confirms in his reply of 21 June:""I welcome the fact that I and my colleagues are free to decide independently how best to fulfil our remit.""