Chilcot inquiry: families back legal action to speed release of Iraq inquiry

Lawyers for families who lost relatives in the Iraq war are pushing ahead with legal action aimed at forcing the chair of the inquiry, Sir John Chilcot, to set a timetable for publication of his long-delayed report. The issue could be in court within weeks.

Lawyers representing 29 of the families had set a deadline of 5pm on Wednesday this week for Chilcot to announce a timetable. Hours before, Chilcot published a statement defending the numerous delays and saying he was still not in a position to offer a timetable.

But this failed to satisfy the families, and their lawyers have begun moving towards legal action to seek a judicial review aimed at compelling Chilcot to set a date.

The Iraq inquiry began in 2009, with the last of the hearings held in February 2011. Chilcot, in his statement, said more time was required in the interests of fairness and accuracy.

He added that the delays had been caused by problems in getting Whitehall to disclose relevant documents and the slow process of “Maxwellisation” in which individuals facing criticism have been given a chance to reply. He expected to receive the final responses “shortly”.

One of the relatives, Roger Bacon, whose son was killed in Iraq, told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme: “He [Chilcot] has now come back and it’s as we were, that the Maxwellisation process will continue and he will publish, as he puts it, as soon as possible, but when’s that? It seems to us that the only way of getting on with this is to take some kind of legal action.”

Chilcot, separate from his public statement, sent a letter to the families’ lawyers but it is understood this was basically the same, though expressed in dry language addressing specific legal points.

The risk for Chilcot is that the row over the delays could undermine his report when it finally appears. A judicial review, depending on the outcome, could also muddy the waters, with those criticised in his report potentially able to claim that Chilcot was pressed into speeding up his conclusions.

Crispin Blunt, who chairs the Commons foreign affairs select committee, said setting a deadline could wreck the inquiry. He conceded that Chilcot’s use of the word “shortly” to describe when final replies were expected was “a bit of an elastic term” that should be clarified, but warned against an externally imposed deadline.

“We can do that but we can wreck the inquiry in the process,” he told the Today programme. “The inquiry, which is independent and sets its own procedure, has determined how it is going to conduct itself. It is without any doubt I think in the last 10% of its inquiry time, I would sincerely hope, after six years.”