Hutton report to be published on 28 January
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Your support makes all the difference.Lord Hutton's report into the circumstances surrounding the death of Government weapons expert Dr David Kelly is to be published on J28 anuary, it was announced today.
The decision means that Lord Hutton's long-awaited conclusions will emerge the day after the crucial House of Commons vote on Tony Blair's plans for university tuition fees, bringing the Prime Minister's two biggest headaches together in a dramatic way.
On the day of publication, the law lord Lord Hutton will make a televised statement at the High Court summarising his findings, said a spokesman for the inquiry.
All parties represented at the inquiry - including the Government, the BBC and Dr Kelly's family - will be given 24 hours' notice of the report.
The inquiry spokesman said: "Lord Hutton's report into the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr David Kelly will be sent to the printers on 19 January and laid and published in Parliament on Wednesday 28 January.
"On the day of publication, Lord Hutton will make a statement summarising his report in Court 76 at the Royal Courts of Justice. His statement will be available for live broadcast on radio and television. Detailed timings will be announced in due course.
"Lord Hutton intends that the six parties represented at the inquiry will have 24 hours notice of the report.
"Parties will be required to sign an undertaking not to reveal the contents of the report before publication."
Mr Blair will make a statement to the House of Commons following the publication of the report, and MPs will debate its contents in the House, probably a week later.
Lord Hutton was asked by Mr Blair "urgently to conduct an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death" of government scientist Dr Kelly, who apparently committed suicide last July after being named as the source for a controversial BBC report on the handling of intelligence in the run-up to war in Iraq.
It is not yet known whether he will confine his report strictly to the events surrounding Dr Kelly's death at a beauty spot near his Oxfordshire home, or will pass comment on the way the Government prepared its dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
Speculation is rife over whether he will apportion blame to the Government or the BBC, or will simply lay out the facts surrounding Dr Kelly's death and leave others to draw conclusions.
Conservative leader Michael Howard has signalled that he will seek to focus attention on Mr Blair's personal role in the "outing" of Dr Kelly.
And Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy has said that he will demand a wider inquiry into the presentation of intelligence on Iraqi WMDs if Lord Hutton does not answer all the questions on the issue.
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