§ Mr. MeacherTo ask the Prime Minister with reference to the information received on 29 August 2002 that some of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction could be deployed within 45 minutes of an order to use them, on what date he published the information that this referred to battlefield weapons. [153009]
§ The Prime MinisterI refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Aldershot (Mr. Gerald Howarth) on 15 September 2003.
§ Llew SmithTo ask the Prime Minister whether changes were made to the content of the Iraq weapons of mass destruction dossier between the version signed off by John Scarlett on 20 September 2002 and the version sent to the printer for publication; on what day the final version was delivered to the printer; and on what day the printing was done. [153928]
§ The Prime MinisterJohn Scarlett set out to Lord Hutton the changes that were made to the dossier and explained how they were made to bring the text in line with underlying intelligence. The dossier was sent to the printers on 20 September. Further manuscript changes were made by Mr. Scarlett and his staff that day, acting under the delegated authority of the Joint Intelligence Committee, and are set out at Appendix 12 of Lord Hutton's report.
1675WMr. Scarlett made further grammatical changes at the proof-reading stage at the printer and deleted a reference to the Iraqi football team under the sub-heading: "Saddam Hussein's Family" in part 3 of the document.
The document was finally proof-read by the assessment staff and signed-off on 23 September 2002, and it was printed on the same day.
§ Llew SmithTo ask the Prime Minister pursuant to his oral answer to the hon. Member for Croydon. South (Richard Ottaway) of 4 February 2004,Official Report, column 772, if he will list the occasions between 1 January 2003 and 1 May 2003 when the 45-minute matter in respect of alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction was raised with him. [154688]
§ The Prime MinisterAs far as I am aware, none.
§ Glenda JacksonTo ask the Prime Minister pursuant to his oral answer to the hon. Member for Croydon, South on 4 February 2004,Official Report, column 772, when he knew that the 45-minute launch time referred to Iraqi battlefield chemical and biological weapons. [154752]
§ Dr. Julian LewisTo ask the Prime Minister (1) pursuant to his statement on 4 February on what date after 18 March 2003 he was first made aware that the 45-minute claim related to battlefield weapons or small calibre weaponry; [154673]
(2) on what date prior to 4 February he had made it clear exactly when he had been made aware of the classes of weapons to which the 45-minute claim referred. [154674]
§ The Prime MinisterI refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Members for Montgomeryshire (Lembit Öpik) Croydon, South (Richard Ottaway) and Tonbridge and Mailing (Sir John Stanley) on 10 February 2004,Official Report, column 1345–46W.
§ Glenda JacksonTo ask the Prime Minister when the Government warned the Iraqi regime that the use of chemical or biological weapons would meet with a nuclear response. [154753]
§ The Prime MinisterI refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave her on 10 February 2004,Official Report, column 1346W.
§ Mr. HancockTo ask the Prime Minister what information the British Government passed to Dr. Hans Blix to assist in his search for weapons of mass destruction; what the results were of the weapons inspectors' investigations following up information passed on by the United Kingdom; and if he will make a statement. [155218]
§ The Prime MinisterSince 1991, successive Governments have assisted the work of UN inspectors in Iraq, including Dr. Hans Blix and UNMOVIC. The Government provided information on our understanding of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and their associated programmes, based on all available1676W Sourcs. Dr. Blix acknowledged this himself on 13 January 2003 when he said on the BBC World Service:
We have fairly good co-operation both with the Americans and British and other sources of intelligence and we are beginning to make more use of it".Information passed by the Government would have been incorporated with information obtained by the UN inspectors from their other sources. It is not possible to say what the results were of UN inspectors' investigations based only on information passed by HMG.
Dr. Blix's reports to the UN Security Council do not differentiate between findings resulting from UK information and findings resulting from information from other sources.