In July 2003 Lord Hutton was asked to conduct an urgent inquiry into the death of the Government scientist Dr David Kelly. Dr Kelly's suicide was the culmination of a series of events resulting from a disagreement between the BBC and the Government over the contents of the Government's dossier on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq (published in September 2002). In May/June 2003 the BBC aired several programs quoting an unnamed source as saying that the Government had "sexed up- the dossier. The BBC reporter, Andrew Gilligan also alleged that the government "probably knew" it was wrong to claim Iraq's weapons of mass destruction could be deployed in 45 minutes. The Government refuted these claims and demanded an apology from the BBC. The Government also demanded that the name of the source for these reports was released. The BBC refused and the argument continued with a Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC) and Intelligence & Security Committee (ISC) set up to look at the BBC's claims.
Dr David Kelly, a weapons inspector and scientist working for the Ministry of Defence (MoD), came forward to his employers saying that he had spoken to BBC journalists and could be the source of the BBC reports. Dr Kelly's name was later confirmed to the media as the possible source. As a result, Dr Kelly appeared before both the FAC and the ISC to give evidence, coming under increasing media scrutiny. Shortly after appearing before the committees, Dr Kelly committed suicide. After his death the BBC acknowledged that Dr Kelly was the source for their controversial reports.
In the inquiry, Lord Hutton considered: "the circumstances preceding and leading up to the death of Dr Kelly insofar as (1) they might have had an effect on his state of mind and influenced his actions preceding and leading up to his death or (2) they might have influenced the actions of others which affected Dr Kelly preceding and leading up to his death.