THE Iraq Inquiry’s chairman has repeatedly refused offers of extra assistance to help speed up the completion of his long-awaited report, the head of the Civil Service said yesterday.

Sir John Chilcot told the Prime Minister last month that he still could not say when the inquiry would report, prompting Prime Minister David Cameron to say he was “fast losing patience” over the lack of progress.

Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood said there was nothing he could do to accelerate the process, but insisted that he had offered Mr Chilcot extra resources.

Under questioning from Labour MP Paul Flynn at the public administration and constitutional affairs select committee, Mr Heywood said: “I’m not washing my hands of it. It is an independent inquiry, the timetable is not in my hands.

“I have repeatedly offered to Sir John extra resources on behalf of the Prime Minister, extra legal resources and so on.

“We have repeatedly offered the inquiry further resources, they say they don’t need them, they are doing it as fast as they can.”