Chilcot Inquiry: Bereaved families will not have to pay for copies of the report

Downing Street has confirmed there is 'no question' of families being made to pay £767 for the full 2.6m word, 12-volume report

Sir John Chilcot has written the report which is due to be published on 6 July (Getty)

Downing Street has said there is "no question" of the families of service personnel killed during the Iraq War being forced to pay for copies of the long-awaited Chilcot report.

The families had initially been told they faced being charged £767 for hard copies of the full 2.6 million word, 12-volume report when it is published on 6 July.

But now a Number 10 spokesman said: "There is no question of families of service personnel who died in Iraq having to pay for copies of the Chilcot report."

The decision was welcomed by Roger Bacon, whose son Major Matthew Bacon was killed in Iraq in 2005.

He said: "I appreciate that everybody will want to have the report, but we lost our children."

Mr Bacon added: "I'm really pleased that Number 10 has managed to realise that actually letting us see the report is the right thing to do without having to pay for it.

"I am pleased that they have come to their senses on this."

But he said it was an "insult" that the families had faced having to pay in the first place.

Every next of kin of the 179 soldiers who died over the course of the six-year conflict have been invited to see Sir John Chilcot making a public summary of his findings and will be given an executive summary for free.

They can also read a searchable version of the full report online for free, but had faced being charged for hard copies of the document.

The possibility of being forced to pay led to some parents of soldiers killed in the conflict, including Mr Bacon, to call for former prime minister Tony Blair to foot the bill.

It is currently unclear how the cost of printing the report will be financed but the Daily Telegraph reports government figures are talking to inquiry staff about how the costs could be covered.

Johnny Mercer, the Conservative MP who served as a soldier in Afghanistan before being elected to Parliament in 2015, said the government should foot the bill.

He told the newspaper: “It is an insult to the families for them to be asked to pay for a copy of the report. It is very clear to me that in this Inquiry the families have been almost entirely forgotten.

The inquiry was set up in 2009 by then prime minister Gordon Brown after the withdrawal of the main body of British troops earlier that year.

It has examined the lead up to the 2003 invasion, and the years up to that 2009 withdrawal.

Some of the Iraq War dead's family members have suggested Tony Blair should foot the bill for the report (BBC)

The report's long-awaited publication follows 130 sessions of oral evidence and the testimony of more than 150 witnesses.

The inquiry has analysed more than 150,000 government documents as well as other material related to the invasion.

But it and its author have come under intense criticism for the speed at which the report was compiled.

Additional reporting by PA