Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 14 July 2020 to Question 70307 on Ministry of Defence: Iraq Detainees, of the remaining cases of the 1500 judicial review claims, how many of those claimants were notified that the investigations have been completed (a) before, and (b) after 13 April 2020.

The firm Public Interest Lawyers submitted approximately 1,400 judicial reviews by Iraqi nationals seeking an ECHR-compliant investigation into alleged violations of Article 2 (right to life) or Article 3 (prohibition of torture and ill-treatment).

Judicial reviews are separate from initial criminal investigations. All cases in which there were allegations of criminality were referred to the Service police. The Service police have been notifying complainants appropriately of the outcome of these investigative steps: those whose allegations are screened out at the pre-investigation stage, are notified online; those whose cases proceed to an investigation are notified by letter once that stage is complete.

The Ministry of Defence is required to consider whether those investigative steps have been sufficient to discharge any investigative obligations that may arise under ECHR, and to notify the complainant of this decision.

By 13 April 2020, the Ministry of Defence had notified around 630 complainants (those whose criminal allegations had resulted in the Service police producing a final report summarising the investigative steps taken) of its decision not to establish a further non-criminal investigation. The Ministry of Defence is working as quickly as possible to ensure that all remaining complainants in this category are notified by the end of this year.