Chilcot report: Release date, time and what to expect as Iraq war inquiry results are announced

Report: Tony Blair and George W Bush
Reuters/Win McNamee
Mark Chandler5 July 2016
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After a seven-year wait the Chilcot report into the Iraq war will finally be published on Wednesday morning.

The Chilcot Inquiry was set up by Gordon Brown when he was Prime Minister to look at Britain’s decision-making prior to and during the invasion, covering a period from summer 2001 to July 2009.

Its final report, which runs to 11 volumes, is expected to make tough reading for politicians, military chiefs and the intelligence services.

Sir John Chilcot will make a public statement about his inquiry’s findings at 11am on July 6 in the Queen Elizabeth II Centre, central London.

Alongside its main findings, more than 1,500 documents are due to be made public for the first time, including memos sent from Tony Blair to US President George W Bush.

All the documents will be published online after Sir John’s statement has been made, some time after 11.15am.

Relatives of service personnel killed in Iraq between 2003 and 2009 will get an early sight of a 150-page summary.

David Cameron and Jeremy Corbyn, who will also have a preview of the findings, are expected to give public statements at 12.30pm after Prime Minister’s Questions.

Racking up an estimated cost of £10.3 million, the inquiry has heard from more than 150 different witnesses, with the final report running to 2.6 million words.

Major issues it will examine include the decision to go to war in the first place, based on flawed intelligence about Iraq’s capacity to produce Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Report: Sir John Chilcot outlining the terms of the inquiry in 2009
Matt Dunham/PA Wire

The inquiry will also look at how Mr Blair and his Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, alongside defence chiefs, presented that intelligence to MPs and the public.

It will also examine how the British tried and failed to stop southern Iraqi areas like Basra and Helmand descending into violence in the years following the initial conflict.

Mr Blair has said he will not make any comment until the report is made public while the International Criminal Court has indicated he will not be liable for prosecution, reiterating its conclusion 10 years ago that it is not within its jurisdiction.

However, prosecutors may be able to bring proceedings against British soldiers based on the evidence published tomorrow.

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