by David Henke, Westminster correspondent
Sir John Chilcot, the chairman of the ongoing inquiry into the Iraq war, is involved in a battle with Whitehall to force the release of sensitive documents on the conflict which are being withheld from the public, but are available to witnesses and members of his team.
A spokesman for the inquiry confirmed that the committee was in dispute with a number of ministries over moves to redact information or ban the release of documents. The inquiry will not name which documents or ministries are involved.
The row has arisen under a protocol agreed between Sir John and the Government which left individual ministries deciding what they should make public and what should be kept secret.
The protocol lays down guidelines on what should be released which broadly follow the Government’s own interpretation of the existing Freedom of Information Act. However, decisions cannot be challenged by the public because the inquiry is exempt from the Act.
Instead the chairman can challenge ministries, but will rely on the Cabinet Secretariat as the final arbiter on what the public can know.
The inquiry spokesman insisted that Sir John wanted to be as open as possible. He pointed out that 40,000 documents had been given to the team, including communications from foreign governments held on file in this country, A number of documents are top secret and so will not be released.
But Sir John has sealed a deal with Gordon Brown which puts him in a much weaker position than Lord Hutton and Sir William Gage, the retired high court judge who is holding a parallel inquiry into the death of Iraqi civilian Baha Mousa while in the custody of British troops in Basra.
Lord Hutton did not have a protocol with Whitehall, but insisted tdocuments would be released as soon as the inquiry team received them unless ministries objected. Most did not.
Sir William refused to cede the power to the Cabinet Secretariat to decide publication. He ruled that the Ministry of Defence could only get documents redacted if his inquiry agreed.
The Baha Mousa inquiry website discloses that although it is not covered by FoI legislation, it will act as though it is. Anyone can request information and get a reply within 20 working days.
