Recommendation 1

We are not a public inquiry and our access to evidence has been constrained, especially in relation to government and Court material, and material at higher levels of classification. We have nonetheless been able to reach important findings in less than a year. However, the constraints imposed on us have unavoidably diminished the completeness of democratic scrutiny of an episode involving risks to life, substantial expenditure and prolonged secrecy. If government wishes to rely on select committee scrutiny in cases of this seriousness, it must provide the access needed for that scrutiny to be as complete as the circumstances require. It is for others to judge, on reading this report, if a further inquiry with more extensive powers and access to information would be valuable. (Conclusion, Paragraph 23)