Comment: IHAT - £60 Million, 1600 Claims And 7 Years Later

The government has clearly been working towards closing down IHAT for a long time, after repeatedly accusing some lawyers of ‘industrial scale’ abuse of the system.

But the announcement ended up as a rushed Friday afternoon statement, because MPs had pointed the finger of blame at the government itself.

“IHAT has operated without any regard to its impact on the UK military” the commons defence committee said. “The MoD must take its share of responsibility for this”.

It’s verdict that IHAT has been an “unmitigated failure for both ‘victims’ and military personnel” can’t be read any other way than damning.

A £60 million pound budget, seven years of investigations into more than 1600 claims (with another 1500 sifted out), hundreds of people interviewed… and to show for it after all that just 28 questioned under caution so far and not one prosecution.

The Defence Secretary announced, at the Conservative Party Conference, that he expected most of the allegations to be dismissed by this summer leaving a rump of only around 60.  

He’ll be pleased that he’s been able to go further, and reduce that number to around 20.
It’s worth remembering that IHAT was set up for a reason, in the final days of Gordon Brown’s government, to address fewer than 200 allegations.

The long legal battle which finally exposed abuse that contributed to the death of Iraqi civilian Baha Mousa gave further weight in the court of public opinion.

Two years in the government was forced to remove the Royal Military Police from the investigations, because the courts said it wasn’t independent enough.

Today the government, and committee of MPs, do seem to agree on one key thing; that Royal Navy Police, assisted by civilian Police can do the job thoroughly and independently enough.

The tribunal which struck off solicitor Phil Shiner, of Public Interest Lawyers, may well have helped the government wrap up many of the cases which he brought to IHAT.

But the MP’s aren’t just concerned about those facing investigation from their service in Iraq, they had an eye to other investigations from other conflicts.

Once again the government had, at least a partial, response.

90% of the 675 investigations relating to Afghanistan are set to be dropped.

But no word on what this will, or won’t, mean for those facing legal questions about their service and actions in Northern Ireland, getting on for half a century ago.

More: "Unmitigated Failure": 'IHAT' Iraq Investigation To Close In The Summer