Compensation fears blamed for caution in Iraq

Adam Ingram said lawyers warned defence officials they had to be careful about their wording in case it was taken as an admission of liability.

He also told the Iraq Inquiry it was "very wearing" on ministers to have to meet bereaved relatives who blamed them for the deaths of their loved ones.

And the ex-armed forces minister dismissed some reports of equipment shortages for British troops in Iraq as "urban myths" – although he conceded there were problems with tracking kit after it was sent to the Middle East. Former defence secretary Bob Ainsworth admitted in his evidence to the inquiry earlier this month that families of British service personnel killed in Iraq were let down by inadequate Government support.

Asked about that, Mr Ingram said there was a "mismatch between

expectation and delivery" and partly blamed the mistakes on the "intensity of scrutiny" of the war.

He added: "There was another issue, of course, with families, and that was if you conceded failings, we're in a compensation culture as well, and therefore you could have a lawyer saying 'be careful in your wording here'." The former minister said there were often divisions within bereaved families.

"You can have splits between husbands, fathers and mothers about what should happen. Some want to move on, some want more answers," he said.

"I may sound hard and harsh in all of this, but my experience tells me that it is very wearing on ministers and those who have the interface with the grieving families.

"They're not trained to do that. Ministers are not trained to be counsellors, they are trained to be something else."

Mr Ingram, armed forces minister from 2001 to 2007, referred to "urban myths" about equipment shortages for troops in Iraq, including a lack of desert combat uniforms.

"The urban myths I would say were people being sent and deployed in green uniform," he said. "There was combat gear waiting for them in theatre and those who were doing front-line fighting did not go out in green uniforms."

Another myth was that the camouflage paint washed off British tanks, he said, adding: "It didn't happen."

Mr Ingram also admitted yesterday that the British Government probably should have tried to establish how many Iraqi civilians were killed in the war.