Watered-down Scott for sale on CD-Rom

Written evidence showing attempts by former and current Government ministers to water down criticism of them in the Scott arms to Iraq report will not be publicly available until 2026 at the earliest.

Much of the evidence to the 39-month inquiry into what Whitehall knew about exports of defence equipment to Iraq, is published today. But the two CD-Rom disks to be issued by this afternoon - the first time CD-Rom has been used for an official inquiry - will not contain the most sensitive material. The pair of disks will cost pounds 150 plus VAT, compared with the report, published last February, priced at pounds 45.

Not included in the 20,000 pages on the disks is correspondence between Sir Richard Scott and current and former ministers following release of his draft report, and most of the evidence from the security services. Opposition politicians anxious to score points against William Waldegrave, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, who was criticised in the draft but not in the final version, will be disappointed since correspondence from him and his lawyers is in the excluded material.

Also excluded are the exchanges over the draft report between Sir Richard and Lord Howe, the former Foreign Secretary and Sir Nicholas Lyell, the Attorney-General. Lord Howe kept up a behind-the-scenes running dialogue with Sir Richard over the legal parameters of his probe.

Other former and current ministers and senior civil servants retained City law firms to make representations on their behalf with Sir Richard. Those papers will be consigned to the Public Records Office at Kew and will come within the rule that bars inspection of government documents for 30 years.

Part of the most keenly-awaited evidence on the disks is the written evidence of Sir Charles Powell, Lady Thatcher's former private secretary when she was at Downing Street. Sir Charles was the most notable of those not summoned to a public quizzing by Sir Richard and Presiley Baxendale QC, the inquiry's counsel.

In letters to Sir Richard, the former private secretary is expected to have tried to explain an apparent contradiction between a brief in which he said that the Prime Minister "will wish to be kept very closely in touch at every stage and consulted on all relevant decisions", and Lady Thatcher's insistence to the inquiry that she could not recall seeing any proposals for introducing a more liberal trade policy towards Iraq.

It should also be possible to judge from the CD-Rom which witnesses needed to be persuaded to give evidence. Requests from Sir Richard for assistance will be included on the disks.

From tomorrow, the inquiry team will begin packing up. The senior figures have already moved on. Sir Richard is devoted full-time to his role as Vice-Chancellor; Ms Baxendale is back at the Bar and Christopher Muttukumaru, the inquiry's redoubtable secretary, is one of two deputies in the Ministry of Defence's legal department.