Iraq (Hansard, 3 February 2004)

§ Mr. Challen
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what criteria were used to select British companies to carry out reconstruction work in Iraq. [150604]

§ Mr. Mike O'Brien
There are several different organisations involved in Iraq's reconstruction. British companies have won contracts from a number of these, including the Department for International Development, the Development Fund for Iraq, the US Government and the United Nations. Each organisation has its own criteria for selecting companies. All have used competitive bidding or existing contracts for reconstruction work in Iraq.
I will write to my hon. Friend with further details.

§ Llew Smith
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will place a transcript of his interview on the Today Programme on 26 January on Iraq in the Library. [151851]

§ Mr. Straw
Yes.

§ Llew Smith
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether the Special Intelligence Service has interviewed Iraqis who had worked in Saddam Hussein's programmes of weapons of mass destruction-related activities(a) prior to March 2003 and (b) since May 2003. [151852]

§ Mr. Straw
It is not the Government's policy to comment on the operations of the Intelligence Services. The Security and Intelligence Agencies are not within the scope of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information (Paragraph 6, Part 1).

§ Llew Smith
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether evidence of nuclear weapons of mass destruction programme-related activities have been discovered in Iraq by the Iraq Survey Group since the statement to the United Nations Security Council on 27th January 2003 by Dr. Mohamed El-Baradei on the status of nuclear inspections in Iraq. [151968]

§ Mr. MacShane
In his interim report of 2 October 2003, Dr. David Kay reported that the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) had uncovered evidence that a senior scientist at the Iraq Atomic Energy Agency, Dr. Sa'id, had started work on several small and relatively unsophisticated research initiatives in 2000 that could be applied to nuclear weapons development, and which could have been useful in developing a weapons-relevant science base for the long-term.
Dr. Kay also referred to uncovering evidence of a number of other steps taken by Iraq to preserve some technological capability from its earlier nuclear weapons programme. Iraqi scientists and senior government officials have told the ISG that Saddam Hussein remained firmly committed to acquiring nuclear weapons.
The text of Dr.Kay's interim report can be found on the CIA internet website at www.cia.gov.
843W

§ Llew Smith
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what specific steps have been taken by the Iraq Survey Group to follow up the unresolved disarmament issues in respect of(a) VX nerve agent, (b) thiodiglycol mustard gas precursor,(c)anthrax, (d)AI Samoud 2 rockets and (e) AI Fatah rockets presented to the United Nations Security Council by Dr. Hans Blix on 27 January 2003. [151969]

§ Mr. MacShane
The Iraq Survey Group is continuing to search for any evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and programmes for their production. The Iraq Survey Group produced an interim report on its findings in October 2003.