Blair Iraq evidence to be in public

Iraq inquiry chairman Sir John Chilcot has defended his handling of witness questioning
12 April 2012

The chairman of the Iraq Inquiry has strongly defended his handling of the questioning of witnesses and insisted that Tony Blair would give evidence in public.

Sir John Chilcot responded to criticism that he and his team have been over-secretive and too soft on the senior civil servants and military officers who have already given testimony.

But he appeared to suggest that some witnesses had not been "open and candid" in their appearances before the official inquiry into Britain's involvement in the war.

In a closing statement before suspending public hearings for Christmas, Sir John said a huge amount of "valuable and illuminating evidence" had been uncovered.

He said: "There is an exceptional level of openness. My colleagues and I remain committed to hearing as much of the evidence in public as possible. Evidence will only be heard in private in the narrow circumstances we have set out in the protocols on our website. But I would like to be absolutely clear about this - evidence sessions with key decision-makers, including the former prime minister, will be in public."

The inquiry faced questions about its openness on Tuesday after the live video feed of evidence from a witness was halted for just over a minute for reasons of national security. So far the inquiry has heard from top British military and civilian officials who were involved in planning, carrying out and dealing with the aftermath of the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Mr Blair and other then ministers will give evidence in January and February.

Sir John issued a warning to MPs that they should not use the inquiry to score party political points. He said: "We are determined to remain firmly outside party politics. We have informed members of Parliament that we are ready to meet them if they want an explanation of our working methods, but the inquiry should not be used as a platform for political advantage."

Sir John also rejected criticism that witnesses have not had to face tough questions from the five-strong inquiry panel.

The inquiry has heard from 38 witnesses at the 23 public evidence sessions to date. It has also received more than 40,000 Government documents, including over 12,000 from Number 10 alone, although these have not been published. Sir John said the inquiry team remained hopeful that they would complete their report by the end of next year.

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