A few days before Easter, the Government published a largely unnoticed document laying out how, in future, it would approach the taking of foreign, defence and aid decisions, including the deployment of UK armed forces in action. The National Security Capability Review went out from the Cabinet Office under the signature of the Prime Minister on 28 March.

Its processes, the document declared, were “Chilcot compliant”. In other words, they were shaped by the lessons drawn by Sir John Chilcot’s 2016 report on the Iraq War of 2003. To find out what “Chilcot compliant” meant needed more work along the paper trail.