The Scotsman 11/16/04

The independent inquiry into Gulf War illnesses headed by the former law lord, Lord Lloyd of Berwick, will deliver its final report tomorrow.

The investigation was set up at the request of Labour peer Lord Morris of Manchester, the parliamentary adviser to the Royal British Legion, after the Ministry of Defence refused an official inquiry.

Its findings are expected to put further pressure on the MoD to accept the claims of the 6,000 veterans suffering from ill health which, they say, is linked to the 1991 conflict.

Although the MoD and the Department of Health both refused to allow serving military personnel and officials to appear before the inquiry, they did submit written documentation.

Lord Lloyd was also able to take evidence from retired personnel, including the commander of British forces in the Gulf, General Sir Peter de la Billiere, leading scientific experts as well as some 35 veterans or their families.

The MoD sought to pre-empt the inquiry’s findings with its own report earlier this month in which it accepted it had not been open about the vaccinations it had given to troops in case of possible chemical or biological attack.

However it continued to deny the existence of any “Gulf War Syndrome”.

Veterans have suffered from a range of health problems including cancers, motor neurone disease, chronic fatigue, skin rashes, traumatic stress and aching joints.

Their case was boosted by the publication last week of a report by the US Veterans Department in Washington which said there was a “probable link” between illnesses suffered by American veterans and exposure to toxins, including nerve gases such as sarin.

It said that up to 30% of US veterans of the conflict had been affected by a “complex of multiple chronic symptoms over and above the expected rates seen in veterans who did not serve in the conflict”.

However the MoD said that the report had failed to take account of a recent paper by the US Institute of Medicine which found that there was insufficient evidence to determine whether there was a link between low level exposure to sarin and long-term neurological effects.