§ Llew SmithTo ask the Prime Minister if he will make an exception to the usual rule on the non-disclosure of information on Cabinet Committee proceedings in the case of consideration of policy towards Iraq as discussed in the Defence and Overseas Policy Sub-committee. [151971]
§ The Prime MinisterNo. It is established practice under Exemption 2 of Part II of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information not to disclose information relating to the proceedings of the Cabinet and its committees.
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§ Mr. HancockTo ask the Prime Minister what plans he has to offer technical and logistical support to enable the Iraqi Governing Council to organise free and fair elections [152161]
§ The Prime MinisterThe UN Secretary-General announced on 26 January that, once satisfied about the security arrangements, he would send a technical team to Iraq to look at the feasibility of holding elections before 30 June.
The Government welcomes the news and, once we have seen the team's recommendations, we will consider any requests for assistance.
We have also told the Iraqi Governing Council that we are ready to assist the Transitional Government, where necessary, with the constitution and elections processes envisaged for 2005.
§ Llew SmithTo ask the Prime Minister what the sources were of information on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programme brought to his attention in the summer of 2002, referred to in his oral evidence to the Hutton Inquiry. [152313]
§ The Prime MinisterI received information from a variety of sources, including intelligence reports and assessments.
§ Llew SmithTo ask the Prime Minister (1) whether he authorised his former Director of Communications to press the chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee to revise the nuclear weapons time-line during the revision of the draft dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction in September 2002; [152315]
(2) who authorised his former director of communications to press the chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee to alter the nuclear weapons time-line in the draft of the dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction from the statement that nuclear weapons could be produced in at least two years, to the statement that nuclear weapons could be produced in between one and two years, as indicated in Mr. Alastair Campbell's e-mail of 19 September 2002 to the Joint Intelligence Committee chairman, submitted by the Prime Minister's office to the Hutton Inquiry as document CAB/11/0091–0092. [152533]
§ The Prime MinisterLord Hutton found in his report that
Mr Scarlett accepted some of the drafting suggestions made to him by 10 Downing Street but he only accepted those suggestions which were consistent with the intelligence known to the JIC and he rejected those suggestions which were not consistent with such intelligence and the dossier issued by the Government was approved by the JIC". (HC 247 paragraph 228)