Legg Inquiry into the Sandline Affair

The Legg Inquiry of 1998 examined the 'arms-to-Sierra Leone' affair, in which the private military company Sandline International supplied arms to forces supporting the deposed President Kabbah of Sierra Leone during a period when a UN arms embargo was in force. Sir Thomas Legg KCB QC was appointed on 18 May 1998 and reported within ten weeks, on 27 July 1998. The inquiry found that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office had received intelligence about Sandline's activities but had not taken adequate steps either to prevent the shipment or to inform ministers. Legg identified failures in communication within the FCO and between the FCO and Customs and Excise. The inquiry made no formal recommendations. Foreign Secretary Robin Cook faced criticism in Parliament but remained in post. The affair contributed to parliamentary debate about the regulation of private military companies, though no statutory regulation followed. The Private Security Industry Act 2001 addressed domestic security firms but did not extend to military companies operating overseas. The inquiry remains significant as an example of rapid non-statutory investigation into a politically sensitive matter. Its findings about departmental communication failures prefigured similar issues identified in later inquiries, though no systematic reforms to address these specific issues can be traced to the Legg Report in the public record.