Hutton’s verdict on the Government’s insertion of the 45-minutes claim:
“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.
Therefore, whether or not, at some time in the future, the report on which the 45-minutes claim was based is shown to be unreliable, the allegation reported by Mr Gilligan on 29 May, 2003, that the Government probably knew the 45-minutes claim was wrong before the Government decided to put it in the dossier, was an allegation which was unfounded.”
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Was the BBC right to report that the intelligence dossier was sexed up?:
“In the context of the broadcasts in which the ‘sexingup’ allegation was reported and having regard to the other allegations reported in those broadcasts, I consider that the allegation was unfounded as it would have been understood by those who heard the broadcasts to mean that the dossier had been embellished with intelligence known or believed to be false or unreliable, which was not the case.”
On the BBC’s editorial system:
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“The allegations that Mr Gilligan was intending to broadcast in respect of the Government and the preparation of the dossier were very grave allegations in relation to a subject of great importance and I consider that the editorial system which the BBC permitted was defective in that Mr Gilligan was allowed to broadcast his report at 6.07am without editors having seen a script of what he was going to say and having considered whether it should be approved.”
On BBC management:
“The BBC management failed, before Mr [Richard] Sambrook [pictured left] wrote his letter of 27 June, 2003, to Mr Campbell, to make an examination of Mr Gilligan’s notes on his personal organiser of his meeting with Dr Kelly to see if they supported the allegations which he had reported in his broadcast at 6.07am. When the BBC management did look at Mr Gilligan’s notes after 27 June it failed to appreciate that the notes did not fully support he most serious of the allegations which he had reported in the 6.07am broadcast, and it therefore failed to draw he attention of the Governors to the lack of support in the notes for the most serious of the allegations.”
On the BBC Governors:
“The Governors are to be criticised for themselves failing to make more detailed investigations into whether this allegation reported by Mr Gilligan was properly supported by his notes.”
On Alastair Campbell: “Mr Campbell’s complaints were being expressed in exceptionally strong terms which raised very considerably the temperature of the dispute between the Government and the BBC.”
On the Government’s naming strategy:
The were was no covert naming strategy, the Government wanted to avoid allegations of a coverup – however: “The sudden information from Dr Wells that his name had been confirmed to the press by the MoD’s own press office without any explanation as to why this had been done must have been very upsetting to him and must have given rise to a feeling that he had been badly let down by his employer.”
On the meeting at the Charing Cross Hotel:
“I am satisfied that Dr Kelly did not say to Mr Gilligan that the Government probably knew or suspected that the 45-minutes claim was wrong before that claim was inserted in the dossier.”
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