Involved from the outset

It emerged during the Hutton Inquiry that at the first planning meeting for the dossier on 5 September 2002, Williams had offered to write the dossier himself. This was revealed by sections of Alastair Campbell's diary, on which Campbell was questioned (Sections 10/11). Those sections have now been published. Campbell falsely claimed that he rejected that offer "either at that meeting or certainly by the 9th".

On the same day, Williams rewrote the "capping piece" that was at that time the dossier's foreword.

On 6 September, he emailed a note to Campbell, stating that he had Straw’s permission to carry out a "media-friendly editorial job" on the dossier. He offered the services of press officer Mark Matthews, who had "a very good eye for the kind of material which works with the media".

Williams produced his own draft of the dossier - the first full draft - probably over the weekend of 7 and 8 September.

9 September 2002

On the day that the 45 minutes almost certainly went in the dossier, Williams attended both a planning meeting and the drafting group meeting that resulted in the inclusion of the claim in the dossier.

Both Campbell and Joint Intelligence Committee chairman John Scarlett told Hutton that it was decided at the planning meeting that took place on that day that Scarlett was to have "ownership" of the dossier and that this precluded the involvement of other officials like Williams. But on the afternoon of 9 September, Williams attended the first meeting of the dossier drafting group. Scarlett himself did not attend the meeting, which was chaired by his deputy. During his evidence to the Hutton Inquiry, he failed to mention having attended this meeting or producing his own draft of the dossier.

10 September onwards

When Scarlett sent Campbell his own draft of the dossier on 10 September, he referred in a covering note to "considerable help" from Williams would continue to be involved in the drafting of the dossier. If he did continue to contribute for the week that he was in New York, evidence of this has been buried.

On his return, Williams attended the second meeting of the drafting group, on 17 September, and continued to be involved in the drafting process. His PA was the redacted primary addressee of an email sent later on 17 September by Foreign Office special adviser Ed Owen, which suggested changes to the executive summary that were subsequently taken up.

How Williams' role was covered up

Williams was one of the first witnesses at the Hutton Inquiry, on the afternoon of 14 August 2003. He was mainly asked about his role in the naming of Dr David Kelly but ironically was not asked to explain his comment that his agreement was "nothing personal". At the end of his testimony (Sections 189-190), when asked if he had anything to add, he mentioned that he had been at the meetings chaired by Campbell on 5 and 9 September and the second drafting group meeting on 17 September. He did not mention having written the first draft or having attended the key drafting group meeting on 9 September.

Campbell was asked about the many documents that showed Williams' involvement, including an entry in his own diary that showed that Williams was from the outset a candidate to write - or re-write - the dossier. He repeatedly claimed that he had rejected this "kind offer" on the grounds that it was decided at least by the morning meeting of 9 September that Scarlett had to be the author. Williams has recently contradicted this claim. Campbell was also asked about Pruce's email but and directly asked whether there was a dossier on 9 September. He directly lied when he stated, "No, there was not." He claimed that people like Pruce and Williams were "not terribly closely involved in the process".

Scarlett also claimed that it was agreed at the meeting on the morning of 9 September that he would have "ownership" of the dossier. He did admit that the John referred to in Pruce's email was probably Williams but claimed that this was uninvited and rejected. In spite of his contemporaneous citation of "considerable help" from Williams, he denied that Williams was assisting him. He stated that had he felt that Williams producing his own draft "might cause confusion as to who was actually controlling [the process of drafting the dossier]".