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Inquiry Arms report

The Scott Report (the Report of the Inquiry into the Export of Defence Equipment and Dual Use Goods to Iraq and Related Prosecutions) was a judicial inquiry commissioned in 1992 after reports surfaced of previously restricted arms sales to Iraq in the 1980s by British companies. The report was conducted by Sir Richard Scott, then a Lord Justice of Appeal. It was published in 1996. Much of the report was classified as secret.

In the late 1980s, Matrix Churchill, a British (Coventry) aerospace quality machine tools manufacturer that had been bought by the Iraqi government, was exporting machines used in weapons manufacture to Iraq. According to the International Atomic Energy Authority, the products later found in Iraq were among the highest quality of their kind in the world. They were 'dual use' machines that could be used to manufacture weapons parts. Such exports are subject to government control, and Matrix Churchill had the appropriate government permissions, following a 1988 relaxation of export controls. But, this relaxation had not been announced to Parliament. When asked in Parliament whether controls had been relaxed, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry replied incorrectly that they had not. Matrix Churchill was contacted by HM Customs and Excise, under suspicion of exporting arms components to Iraq without permission. Although it had this permission, the government denied it, in accordance with its most recently announced policy on the matter. Matrix Churchill's directors were prosecuted in 1991 by Customs and Excise for breaching export controls. The trial did not go well for the government. The trial judge overturned the government's use of public interest immunity certificates intended to suppress some critical evidence (purportedly on grounds of national security). The court required the government to hand over these materials to the defence. The trial collapsed when former minister Alan Clark admitted he had been 'economical with the actualité in answer to parliamentary questions regarding what he knew about export licenses to Iraq.

The publication of the report was seen by many as the nadir of the Second Major ministry. Prior to the report's publication, those ministers who were criticised were given the opportunity to comment and request revisions. The 1,806 page report was published at 3:30pm, along with a press pack. The latter included a few relatively positive extracts from the report, presented as if representative of the entire report. Given a then largely pro government press, this proved effective at stalling an extensive analysis in the media. The report had to be debated in Parliament. Ministers criticised in the report were given advanced access to the report and briefed extensively on how to defend themselves against the report's criticisms. In contrast, according to senior Labour MP Robin Cook, the opposition were given just two hours to read the million plus words, during which scrutiny they were supervised and prevented from making copies of the report. Finally, the Prime Minister, John Major, stated that a vote "against" the Government would be in effect a vote of no confidence, ensuring that Conservative MPs would not vote against, while a vote "for" was a vote exonerating the Government of any wrongdoing. Robin Cook worked with a team of researchers to scrutinise the report, and delivered "what was regarded as a bravura performance" in discussing it in total. Nonetheless, the Government won the vote 320–319.