The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) misled a minister and subsequently parliament on the number of records it holds documenting blood and urine tests relating to nuclear test veterans, according to an MP.
The UK government says more than 20,000 military personnel were present for the UK’s nuclear weapons tests which took place from 1952 to 1967 in Australia and the South Pacific.
MP alleges AWE misled minister and subsequently parliament
Conservative backbench MP for South Holland and the Deepings Sir John Hayes, who is also a former minister, raised the allegation in a point of order in the House of Commons on Wednesday 12 March 2025.
Hayes said:
On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. On 21 May 2024, the former Defence Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for South West Wiltshire (Dr Murrison), published records of blood and urine tests relating to nuclear test veterans.
He said at that time that there were 150. It has now become clear from the correspondence of a court case brought by the British nuclear test veterans that there are 370 documents mentioning blood and urine. That includes 265 that were previously unseen and unreleased.
That raises the possibility, as you will appreciate, Madam Deputy Speaker, that the Atomic Weapons Establishment misled Ministers about the number of records, and that, inadvertently and entirely innocently, the Minister brought the wrong information to this House.
I seek your guidance on how the Government can correct the record and publish those extra records. The nuclear test veterans deserve nothing less.”
Responding, madam deputy speaker Nusrat Ghani MP said:
I am grateful to the right hon. Member for giving notice of his point of order.
The Chair is not responsible for the accuracy of ministerial statements in the House, but he has put his point on the record and no doubt those on the Treasury Bench are taking note and listening.
John Hayes and Andrew Murrison did not respond to a request for comment.
Labour MP said blood and urine test data collection was ‘routine’
In a debate in the House of Commons on 28 November 2023, Labour backbench MP for Salford and Eccles Rebecca Long Bailey said “limited documents, notes, forms, official instructions and guidance” were accessible in the National Archives which suggest:
blood and urine test data was collected from servicemen and that this information was stored and analysed.
She also said the documents at the National Archives indicate that “orders from the Air Ministry and War Office” told medical officers:
to arrange repeated “blood testing of personnel working regularly with radioactive sources”.
Long Bailey went on to say that it seemed “clear that blood and urine tests were routine”.
Those blood and urine test results are critical for nuclear test veterans to be able to access proper compensation from the government due to the ill health they experienced after being exposed to radiation and nuclear material.
In 2023, law firm McCue Jury & Partners said nuclear test veterans were having their medical records “illegally withheld” which was having:
a devastating impact on their physical and mental health.”
The firm said:
Blood and urine samples taken from them as young men at the Cold War weapons trials have been reclassified as ‘scientific data’ and placed out of reach at the Atomic Weapons Establishment.
Nuclear test veterans group says veterans need transparency
LABRATS says it “represents nuclear veterans, atomic veterans, scientists, civilians, and their families across the world who have been affected by the Atomic / Nuclear Testing program” and has been looking for the blood and urine tests.
LABRATS founder Alan Owen said:
This is just the tip of the iceberg, there are hundreds of thousands of pages if not millions of pages of information which has not been digitised and not indexed.
The Minister admitted to the gargantuan task of looking through these records. The Nuclear veterans do not have time on their side, the average age is 85 and we lose many each month, we need a fast track 1 year inquiry into the mismanagement of these records.
We require transparency and access to these records, not secrecy and exclusion.
Charity says veterans ‘never’ received ‘appropriate compensation’
Help for Heroes head of communications, public affairs & policy Sasha Misra said:
Help for Heroes is aware that the Ministry of Defence is currently reviewing the medical records of nuclear test veterans, and we are keen to understand more about its investigation into missing files.
Veterans and their families continue to face the long-term health impacts of radiation exposure, yet they have never received appropriate recognition or compensation.
Help for Heroes is calling on the Government to establish a fair compensation scheme to support those who served and their families.
MOD committed to ‘look seriously into’ medical records
A Ministry of Defence (MOD) spokesperson said:
We recognise the huge contribution that Nuclear Test Veterans have made to national security.
The government is committed to working with veterans and listening to their concerns. We have already amended the criteria for the commemorative Nuclear Test Medal to ensure those who took part in US atmospheric testing are also recognised.
The Minister for Veterans and People has commissioned officials to look seriously into unresolved questions regarding medical records as a priority, and this is now underway.
This work will be comprehensive, and it will enable us to better understand what information the Department holds in relation to the medical testing of Service personnel who took part in the UK nuclear weapons tests, ensuring that we can be assured that relevant information has been looked at thoroughly.
AWE declined to comment.
Anti-nuclear campaign calls for inquiry for nuclear test veterans
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) general secretary Sophie Bolt said:
Successive British governments have covered up the scandalous legacy of Britain’s nuclear testing programme for too long.
Bolt said the testing programme had:
caused serious intergenerational health impacts for the local inhabitants where testing took place as well as test veterans who were unaware of the experiments they were taking part in while on mandatory national service.
As a result, it’s hard not to conceive that the Atomic Weapons Establishment is continuing to avoid scrutiny by failing to acknowledge the extent of the medical documentation it has on those who took part in the programme.
Releasing documents in drips and drabs in the hope that veterans will eventually die, and their families will give up is disgraceful. But they can’t stall forever.
We need an inquiry now, while veterans are still alive, to get to the bottom of this scandal with full cooperation from both AWE and the Ministry of Defence.
When the truth about the Nuked Blood scandal finally gets out, it will join the Post Office, Infected Blood, and Hillsborough scandals as one of the great state injustices against its citizens.
Featured image via the Canary
