'I tried to shield Kelly '

The most senior official at the Ministry of Defence today said he tried to protect weapons expert David Kelly and keep him out of the hands of "political" figures like Alastair Campbell and Geoff Hoon.

In evidence to the Hutton Inquiry into Dr Kelly's death, Sir Kevin Tebbit, permanent secretary at the MoD, laid bare the rift with Mr Hoon and with Downing Street over the handling of the scientist's case.

And he revealed that - in an extraordinary tactic - he avoided for as long as possible naming Dr Kelly either to the Defence Secretary or to No 10 in his efforts to prevent his identity being " bandied about".

Sir Kevin said that as soon as he saw the letter confessing that the weapons expert had held an unauthorised meeting with BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan, he recognised he had a potential bombshell on his hands.

It was "an extremely unwelcome and serious issue ... a very major issue to be dealt with," Sir Kevin said. But his first reaction was that it should be handled as a disciplinary matter by the MoD's director of personnel.

Sir Kevin went on: "I wanted to ensure it was looked at and appraised as coolly as possible - not by people who were themselves caught up in the
intense political issues of the moment."

That same evening, on 3 July, Sir Kevin broke the news to Mr Hoon but, he told the inquiry: "I did not use Dr Kelly's name at that stage."

The conversation, Sir Kevin made clear, produced a widely differing response. Mr Hoon's main interest was the Commons foreign affairs committee report on the Government's handling of intelligence material, and the BBC charges that Downing Street had "sexed up" the dossier on Iraqi weapons.

He was "very concerned" that information should be brought forward "to correct the public record" and that there should be no appearance of a cover-up.

Sir Kevin went on: "I said that's absolutely right but we did need to establish first whether there was a disciplinary case to be answered." Asked why he disclosed Dr Kelly's identity to as few people as possible, Sir Kevin said: "To be honest, I thought this was such an intense matter that it seemed to me it was necessary to try to control the process to some degree out of consideration for Dr Kelly, frankly."

Earlier, counsel to the inquiry James Dingemans QC read from a memo written by Martin Howard, deputy chief of defence intelligence, written on 5 June, which acknowledged that BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan had various contacts within the Ministry of Defence. The memo used language such as the MoD being a "leaky department", which Mr Howard described as unfair.

Sir Kevin admitted that "from time to time there have been suggestions of rivalry, of putting information into the public domain to support one particular interest against another." But he said such activity was deplored by senior staff.

Mr Dingemans then turned to correspondence from Mr Howard on 17 June which said that Dr Kelly had spoken to Mr Gilligan.

Asked whether this was the first time he had heard of Dr Kelly, Sir Kevin added: "I think it was. I have to say I did not pay too much attention to it and did not link it to the particular issue of the dossier."

Sir Kevin said he has not known "in detail" at this time that Dr Kelly had been authorised to speak to journalists and was "not terribly familiar" with the way the open government code of practice, issued in May 1994, related to contact with journalists.

Mr Dingemans said the practice appeared to be "no contact unless authorised by the Government".

Sir Kevin said: "Broadly speaking, that is correct.

"Open government does mean we are more open with information but it does not mean people are free to have contact with journalists without authorisation."

But he said there was a degree of flexibility in that approach.

Mr Dingemans asked Sir Kevin: "At the time that the dossier was being produced, were you aware of any concerns expressed among members of the Defence Intelligence

Staff?" Sir Kevin replied: "I was not at the time, no."

Mr Dingemans then began to relate what Dr Kelly had told Susan Watts, science editor of BBC's Newsnight programme, during a taped conversation.

The hearing heard how Dr Kelly had told Watts that the " word-smithing" involved in the dossier had been extremely important.

Mr Dingemans asked Sir Kevin whether the " concept of wordsmithing" was something that he recognised.

He replied: "Yes I did, it is of course very unusual for intelligence assessment to be put into the public domain.

"This was a matter of national interest which justified the different approach by the Government.

"Intelligence officers are very cautious over the language which they use."