Scarlett 'not unduly influenced'

John Scarlett was "in charge" of the Iraq dossier

Joint Intelligence Committee chairman John Scarlett tried to ensure the Iraq dossier he drew up was consistent with available intelligence, Lord Hutton has concluded.

In his report on the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr David Kelly, Lord Hutton found Mr Scarlett had accepted some drafting suggestions from 10 Downing Street for the September 2002 dossier.

But that he only accepted those suggestions which were appropriate and had acted properly with regard to the controversial dossier.

However, Lord Hutton said he could not "completely rule out" the possibility that Mr Scarlett was "subconsciuosly influenced" by the desire of the prime minister to have as strong a dossier as possible on Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons.

45 minutes claim

Allegations that the claim Iraq could deploy chemical weapons within 45 minutes had been inserted to sex-up the dossier were "unfounded", Lord Hutton said.

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"The 45 minutes claim was based on a report which was received by the Secret Intelligence Service from a source which that service regarded as reliable," he said.

It did not matter if that claim was "some time in the future" shown to be unreliable, Lord Hutton added.

The allegation that it was not included in the original draft of the dossier because it only came from one source and that intelligence agencies did not believe it to be true was also baseless, the Lord said.

It was included later because the intelligence had been received later.

Scarlett "was right to include 45 minutes claim"

But Lord Hutton did acknowledge that concerns over the wording of the 45 minutes claim raised by the nuclear, chemical and biological weapons section of the Defence Intelligence Staff, headed by Dr Brian Jones, were not acted upon by the "higher echelons of the Intelligence Service".

Dr Jones had argued that the wording related to this claim should have referred to it as a suggestion rather than a fact.

Whether the intelligence on that issue or any other was accurate did not fall within the terms of reference of Lord Hutton's inquiry, the law lord said.

He also made clear that he had not intended in his inquiry to decide whether the government was right to take the country to war with Iraq because of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons.