Chilcot report expected in July 2016

Sir John Chilcot has written to David Cameron to say he expects his inquiry into Britain’s invasion of Iraq to be published in July 2016.

The Chilcot Inquiry was launched in June 2009. The report is expected to be completed in April 2016, at which point it will be handed over to national security officials to be checked.

Chilcot said national security officials will check the report “to ensure that the Government's obligations under Article 2 of the ECHR and for the protection of National Security will not inadvertently be breached by publication of the Inquiry's report as a whole”.

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The report is more than two million words long, leading Chilcot to estimate it will take “some weeks to prepare the report for printing and publication”.

He said: “We will complete that work as swiftly as possible. I consider that once National Security checking has been completed it should be possible to agree with you a date for publication in June or July 2016.

“Between today and the week of 18 April my colleagues and I will be finalising our findings, including in light of responses to the Maxwellisation process, and to bring that process to its final conclusion. We will continue to be reliant on the co-operation of the Civil Service as we do so.”

The Chilcot Inquiry was established to identify lessons from the events surrounding the Iraq conflict.