Blair appoints interim JIC head

Tuesday, 20 July 2004 12:00 AM

Tony Blair has approved the appointment of William Ehrman as the interim head of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC).

Speaking during the House of Commons debate on the Butler Report, Tony Blair said that there is "an urgent need to fill the post of JIC Chair, given the continuing operational pressures for intelligence assessment.

"I have therefore asked Mr William Ehrman, who is currently acting as a Deputy Chair, to take over the Chair of the JIC on an interim basis and to be Head of the Intelligence and Security Secretariat until a permanent appointment can be made."

Mr Blair promised that the Cabinet Office would begin the process of finding a permanent replacement "on the basis of Lord Butler's criteria".

The Butler Report found that many of the caveats expressed by the JIC in their assessment of evidence were not carried through into the publication of the Government's intelligence dossier.

Lord Butler recommended that in the future the chairman of the JIC should be someone with experience of dealing with ministers in a very senior role. He further suggested they should be "beyond influence, and thus probably in his last post".

The current head of the JIC, John Scarlett, will take up his new role as head of M16 at the end of the month.

The interim chairman, William Ehrman, is currently director general for defence and intelligence at the Foreign Office, and has been a member of the diplomatic service since 1973 and is expected to take up a further ambassadorial appointment next year.

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