John Chilcot
Sir John Chilcot (1939-) is the chairman of the Iraq Inquiry which was announced by Gordon Brown in June 2009 and began work a month later.[1]
Contents
Education
Chilcot was educated at Brighton College, and Pembroke College, Cambridge where he read English, and Modern and Medieval Languages.[2]
Civil service
Chilcot occupied the following posts during his Civil Service career:
- he was Deputy Under-Secretary at the Home Office in charge of the Police Department, and served in a variety of posts in the Home Office, the Civil Service Department and the Cabinet Office, including Private Secretary appointments to the Home Secretary (Roy Jenkins, Merlyn Rees and Willie Whitelaw) and to the Head of the Civil Service (William Armstrong). [3]
Northern Ireland Office
Chilcot was Permanent Secretary of the Northern Ireland Office from 1990 until his retirement in 1997.[4]
This role put Chilcot at the heart of security and intelligence as well as political affairs. He was closely associated with the secret contacts with the IRA and Sinn Féin and the Government's policy of denying they were taking place.[5]
David McKittrick recounts the following story:
- He has described how the then head of MI5 in Belfast, John Deverell, asked his advice after receiving a message, purporting to come from Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein, which said: "The conflict is over but we need your advice on how to bring it to a close."
- Sir John said he had been able to reassure the then Prime Minister, John Major, that the message was authentic.[6]
Reviews and inquiries
The Iraq Inquiry website lists a number of inquiries and reviews to which Chilcot was appointed following his retirement:
- including the Independent Commission on the Voting System (1997-8), the Lord Chancellor’s Advisory Council on Public Records and its successor National Archives Council (1999-04), a review of Royal and VIP security, an inquiry into the IRA break-in at the PSNI Special Branch HQ (2002), and the Review of the Intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction by a Committee of Privy Counsellors, chaired by Lord Butler, (2004).[7]
Castlereagh Inquiry
After Chilcot was appointed to head the inquiry into the Castlereagh break-in in 2002, the deputy chairman of the Policing Board, Denis Bradley questioned whether his links with the intelligence services provided the right image for the inquiry.[8]
Iraq Inquiry
Following his appointment to chair the Iraq Inquiry in June 2009, Richard Norton-Taylor reported that Chilcot was "one of those former mandarins a government can rely on as a safe pair of hands."
- Phillipe Sands QC, the international lawyer who closely followed the Butler review, said yesterday: "Having some familiarity with Sir John's questioning ... it is not immediately apparent that he will have the backbone to take on former government ministers".[9]
Although the Prime Minister had initially announced the inquiry would take place in private, Chilcot wrote to him arguing that it was "essential to hold as much of the proceedings of the inquiry as possible in public, consistent with the need to protect national security and to ensure and enable complete candour in the oral and written evidence from witnesses.”[10]
Intelligence staff counsellor
Butler was Staff Counsellor to the Security and Intelligence Agencies (1999-2004) and the National Criminal Intelligence Service (2002-06).[11]
Affiliations
- Building and Civil Engineering Group - Chairman
- Police Foundation - Chairman
- Royal Anniversary Trust - Member, Awards Council
- Police Rehabilitation Trust - Trustee
- Centre for Contemporary British History - chair, Advisory Committee
- Institute of Historical Research, member, Advisory Council
Notes
- ↑ About the Inquiry, Iraq Inquiry, accessed 2 August 2009.
- ↑ Sir John Chilcot, Iraq Inquiry, accessed 2 August 2009.
- ↑ Rt Hon Sir John Chilcot GCB, Review of Intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction, accessed 2 August 2009.
- ↑ Sir John Chilcot, Iraq Inquiry, accessed 2 August 2009.
- ↑ David McKittrick, Mandarin who held key to peace talks, Independent, 21 March 2002.
- ↑ David McKittrick, Mandarin who held key to peace talks, Independent, 21 March 2002.
- ↑ Sir John Chilcot, Iraq Inquiry, accessed 2 August 2009.
- ↑ NIO defends security breach appointment, BBC News, 23 March 2002.
- ↑ Richard Norton-Taylor, Sir John Chilcot: a safe pair of hands, The Guardian, 15 June 2009.
- ↑ Philip Webster, Sir John Chilcot tells Brown most of Iraq inquiry must be held in public, The Times, 23 June 2009.
- ↑ Sir John Chilcot, Iraq Inquiry, accessed 2 August 2009.
