Chilcot Report will be published in June or July 2016

Finally, Sir John Chilcot has announced when his inquiry into the Iraq war will arrive. He has written to the Prime Minister this morning to say the findings of his inquiry will be published in June or July next year. After years of increasing pressure from the public and government, Chilcot says the text will be finished the week commencing 18 April 2016 and the report will then be checked by national security staff. When it finally arrives, it is going to be a long read:

‘The very considerable size of our report – more than two million words in total — means it will take some weeks to prepare the report for printing and publication. For security reasons, I understand elements of that work cannot commence before the text is cleared for release to the publishers after the National Security checking process. 

‘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.