David Cameron "Disappointed" That Iraq Inquiry Not Ready Before June 2016

Sir John Chilcot, chair of the Iraq inquiry, says his final report won't be published until next summer. That's seven years after the inquiry began and 13 years after the invasion of Iraq.

Ian Jones / PA Wire

Mark 7 Lynx helicopters on combat patrol over Basra, Iraq, in 2003

The long-awaited report into the Iraq war will finally be released next summer, according to the head of the inquiry.

Sir John Chilcot said his two-million-word report should be published in June or July 2016 – some seven years after the inquiry began and 13 years after the invasion of Iraq.

In a letter to the prime minister, Chilcot said the text would be completed by 18 April but then it needed to go to a team of officials for "national security checking".

But in his reply, Cameron said he was "disappointed" at the delay and urged him to speed up publication.

Here is Chilcot's letter to David Cameron.

gov.uk

Chilcot insisted that he was "committed to producing a report that will meet the very wide-ranging terms of reference we were given and reflect the considerable investment of time and effort by all involved".

Here is Cameron's reply to Chilcot.

Downing Street / Jim Waterson

Cameron wrote bluntly: "Whilst it is welcome of course that there is now a clear end in sight for your inquiry, I am disappointed – and I know the families of those who served in Iraq will also be disappointed – that you do not believe it will be possible logistically to publish your report until early summer."

David Cheskin / PA Wire

Sir John Chilcot in 2009

The inquiry, which was announced by then PM Gordon Brown in June 2009, is examining the UK's involvement in the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and into the war's aftermath.

Some 179 British service personnel and almost 4,500 US soldiers were killed in the conflict, which started when Tony Blair was British PM and George Bush was US president.

MPs and peers have long told of their frustration over the delay in publication. The last public hearing was held in 2011 – and at that point Chilcot said the final report could be published that autumn. In June this year, Cameron said he was "fast losing patience".

Justin Tallis / AFP / Getty Images

Tony Blair

Rose Gentle, whose son Gordon Gentle was killed aged 19 in a Basra bomb attack in 2004, said the delay meant more heartache for families.

She told BBC News: "I thought it would be out by the end of the year, because they have everything there. It's another let-down. It's another few months to wait and suffer again."

In a statement, a spokesman for Tony Blair said: “Tony Blair has always wanted the Inquiry to report as soon as it properly can and he looks forward to responding to the inquiry’s report.

“Mr Blair also wants to make it clear that the timetable of the Inquiry and the length of time it will have taken to report is not the result either of issues over the correspondence between him as Prime Minister and President Bush; or due to the Maxwellisation process."

Under the “Maxwellisation” process, individuals facing criticism in a report are sent the details and given the opportunity to respond.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: "We need to know what happened, we need to know why it happened, we need to know who made the decisions and we never need to make these kind of catastrophic mistakes again."