Q&A: Hutton report leak

The Sun says the report came from someone 'with no vested interest'

BBC News Online examines the significance of the apparent leak of the Hutton report to the Sun.

What is the Hutton report?

Lord Hutton was asked by Tony Blair last July to hold an inquiry into the death of weapons expert Dr David Kelly. The scientist's body was found shortly after being named as the suspected source for a BBC report claiming Downing Street "sexed up" a dossier on the threat from Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

When is it due to be published?

Lord Hutton will outline his conclusions from 1230 GMT on Wednesday. The full report will be publicly available from 1330 GMT.

So who's seen it so far?

At 1230 GMT on Tuesday copies of the report were given to the key players in the inquiry, including Downing Street, BBC bosses and reporter Andrew Gilligan and also Dr Kelly's family.

So one of them leaked it?

Not necessarily. Downing Street and the BBC have both denied leaking it, and it is seen as very unlikely that Dr Kelly's family leaked it. All these parties had to give strict undertakings not to reveal the report's findings before it was published. And there has been tight security surrounding the report.

Could it have been someone else?

The Sun's political editor Trevor Kavanagh says that the person who read him extracts of the report's conclusion had no vested interest or anything to gain politically or financially in leaking it.

Has the Sun seen the whole report?

No. Parts of it were read to Mr Kavanagh. But he says that the report in Wednesday's paper reflects its key findings.

What are those key findings?

The paper says Tony Blair has been "cleared of a sneaky ploy to name Dr Kelly", that defence secretary Geoff Hoon is "off the hook", that Dr Kelly was "wrong to meet BBC... and felt in disgrace", and that the BBC was at fault... Gilligan's story was 'unfounded'.

So that's that then?

Not quite. BBC media correspondent Nick Higham said the Sun had throughout the inquiry put the worst construction on evidence about the BBC and the best gloss on the government's actions. "It may be that what we are getting is a version of Lord Hutton's views filtered through the Sun's eyes," he told the BBC 10 O'clock News.

What's the reaction been?

Conservative leader Michael Howard has attacked the leak and said he wanted to see the Metropolitan Police investigate it. Tory co-chairman Dr Liam Fox openly blamed the government for the leak: "We must find out who is behind it, because it has all the fingerprints of a government which is willing to say or do anything to save its own skin."

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy told reporters: "This does seem to be more in the interest of the government than in the interests of parliamentary democracy."

But Downing Street insisted: "We categorically deny that anyone who was authorised by government to see this document has either shown it to, or spoken about it to, anyone else."