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Soames to face Gulf syndrome criticism

By Joy Copley, Political Staff

NICHOLAS Soames, the defence minister at the centre of the row over Gulf War Syndrome, is expected to be criticised in a report from the all-party Commons select committee on defence today.

The report is also expected to call for an amnesty for officials implicated in an inquiry into how Parliament was misinformed about the use of toxic pesticides. Mr Soames and another defence minister, Lord Howe, are likely to be criticised for not taking For more than two years, Parliament was told that pesticides were not used to kill disease-carrying insects in Saudi Arabia. Mr Soames was then forced into an embarrassing apology when it later emerged that British military tents were sprayed.

An MoD report into how he was misinformed by his officials disclosed that a number of unnamed military officers and civil servants faced disciplinary investigations. But the committee's report makes it clear that disciplinary proceedings should not be us It is believed to argue that only those officials accused of serious misconduct should face disciplinary action. Some 540 Gulf veterans have been compensated, and more than 1,000 lawsuits are outstanding.