IntelligenceMr John Scarlett, the man who drew up the British government's dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, should not lose his job as head of MI6 despite flaws in intelligence in the run-up to the war, the Butler report said.
Mr Scarlett, outgoing chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee, accepted "ownership" of the crucial September 2002 dossier which wrongly alleged that Saddam Hussein was capable of deploying WMD in 45 minutes.
The report said: "We realise that our conclusions may provoke calls for the current chairman of the JIC, Mr Scarlett, to withdraw from his appointment as the next chief of SIS (Secret Intelligence Service).
"We greatly hope that he will not do so. We have a high regard for his abilities and his record."
The JIC collates intelligence drawn from MI5, the Security Service, MI6 and the SIS and presents it to Downing Street and government departments.
But it adds there is a "very strong case" that future appointments of the JIC chairmanship should only go to people with experience of dealing with ministers in a very senior role.
The position should go to someone who is "beyond influence, and thus probably in his last post", the report concludes.
It seems "wrong in principle" that the JIC chairman should be outranked not only by the heads of the agencies but also by two heavyweight permanent secretaries on his committee, it was noted.
And the fact that the role is now a single and independent post which is not combined with others is to be welcomed.
Since the government's dossier was published, Mr Scarlett has endured criticism that he may have been influenced by Mr Jonathan Powell, the Prime Minister's chief of staff, and Mr Alastair Campbell, Mr Tony Blair's former press secretary.
Lord Hutton's inquiry into the death of government scientist Dr David Kelly found that Mr Scarlett "may have been subconsciously influenced" by pressure from Downing Street to make the dossier as strong as possible.