Blair escapes censure in Hutton Report

The government's conduct in compiling its September dossier and its actions leading up to and following the death of Dr David Kelly were largely appropriate and proper, according to the Hutton Report.

Over the course of nearly one and a half hours, Lord Hutton, a former Law Lord, delivered a statement on the main findings of his inquiry – findings which directed its most serious criticisms at the conduct of the BBC.

But the Prime Minister, his former director of communications, Alistair Campbell, the Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, and the intelligence establishment have all been exonerated of the most serious allegations levelled at them in the wake of the death of Dr David Kelly, according to the report.

It had been billed as the most trying 48 hours of Mr Blair's premiership, but with the top up fees vote in the bag, and now the Hutton report finding heavily in favour of the government, the Prime Minister's authority and integrity has been dramatically secured.

On the most serious allegations facing the government – that it had deliberately leaked the name of MoD scientist Dr David Kelly to the press; that the Prime Minister and the Defence Secretary had agreed to the naming strategy and then misled the public; and that an intelligence dossier on the nature of Iraq's WMD was 'sexed up' at the prompting of Downing Street – these were, with only minor blandishment, found to be not true.

On the central allegation, contained in Andrew Gilligan's Today report on May 29, that the government "probably knew" that the '45 minute' claim was wrong before putting it in the dossier – Lord Hutton concluded that it was "unfounded".

On the question of whether Downing Street unduly influenced, or 'sexed up', the JIC intelligence dossier, the report offers Mr Blair only the mildest reproach.

Lord Hutton concluded that "the possibility cannot be completely ruled out that the desire of the Prime Minister to have a dossier which, whilst consistent with the available intelligence, was as strong as possible in relation to the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's WMD, may have subconsciously influenced Mr Scarlett and the other members of the JIC to make the wording of the dossier somewhat stronger than it would have been if it had been contained in a normal JIC assessment".

The report adds: "Although this possibility cannot be completely ruled out, I am satisfied that Mr Scarlett, the other members of the JIC, and the members of the assessment staff engaged in the drafting of the dossier were concerned to ensure that the contents of the dossier were consistent with the intelligence available to the JIC."

The former Northern Ireland chief justice also found that it was reasonable for the government to release the name of David Kelly to the press (to avoid accusations of cover-up) and that there was no "dishonourable or underhand or duplicitous strategy by the government covertly to leak Dr Kelly's name".

After Dr Kelly's name was released to the press on July 8, Lord Hutton found that his line manager had tried to "help and support" the weapons inspector. He added that he was "satisfied that some efforts were made by officials in the MoD to give help and support to Dr Kelly".

However, there were some criticisms of the manner in which the MoD dealt with the press.

The report said that the MoD was "at fault" in failing to tell Dr Kelly that the press office was going to confirm his name to journalists – and did not tell him for nearly one and a half hours. Dr Kelly's consent also ought to have been sought and preparations made before his name became public knowledge, Lord Hutton found.

In the Commons today, Mr Blair accepted the findings of the report and called for all those who had made allegations against the conduct of the government ie. the BBC and the Opposition parties, to retract them and offer an unreserved apology.

(gmcg)