Scarlett set to survive Butler verdict

Spymaster John Scarlett should not be sacked, the Butler report on intelligence about Iraq is expected to say tomorrow.

They will say the mistakes were "a collective failure" and not down to any individual.

ITV News reported that while Lord Butler will acknowledge that Mr Scarlett may face calls to quit, he will add: "We greatly hope this will not be the case. We have a high regard for him."

The claim comes after the Evening Standard revealed exclusively last week that the inquiry would " pull its punches" to save Mr Scarlett from being ousted. He is due to take over as the new head of MI6 and is regarded as too important a figure to be lost.

Downing Street today threw its weight behind Mr Scarlett, saying he enjoyed the "full confidence" of Mr Blair.

As disclosed in the Standard, Lord Butler will say the JIC was chiefly to blame for omitting vital caveats from the dossier, which claimed wrongly that Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of chemical and biological arms, including weapons on standby for use in 45 minutes.

It will conclude that the JIC should be chaired by a figure nearing retirement to prevent the impression that he or she could be leaned on or bribed by Downing Street.

The report will say the 45-minute claim was poorly founded and should never have been included. But it will add that MI6, although wrong in many areas, was right to accuse Saddam of seeking to buy uranium in Niger for nuclear arms.

It will say the dossier should never have been produced in the first place and will criticise the dominance of Tony Blair's inner circle over the Cabinet Office and Whitehall.

Meanwhile, a senior intelligence official who went public by criticising the Iraq dossier was at the centre of speculation that he could be disciplined today.

John Morrison, the former deputy head of Defence Intelligence, who now works at the Cabinet Office, was one of the main witnesses in a BBC Panorama documentary in which he dismissed a claim by Mr Blair that the threat posed by Saddam was "serious and current".

A Cabinet Office spokeswoman failed to confirm or deny rumours that Mr Morrison's future was being reviewed.