AWE: Databases

(asked on 18th January 2024) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when the Merlin database of the Atomic Weapons Establishment was established.


Answered by
Andrew Murrison Portrait
Andrew Murrison
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
This question was answered on 23rd January 2024

The Merlin database was created in 2007 by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and held by the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE). The database contains over 28,000 records relating to historic technical and scientific documentation on the UK’s nuclear testing programme. It was developed to store relevant factual documentary evidence to take into account when considering nuclear test veterans’ compensation claims but does not include medical records.

The Merlin database is interrogated when a Data Subject Access Request is received by AWE from a nuclear test veteran. Seven officials at AWE have appropriate clearance to access the database which includes recorded information ranging from unclassified up to Secret Atomic classified material. Information on the annual costs of maintaining the Merlin database is not held in the format requested and could be provided only at disproportionate cost as the support and maintenance costs are calculated as part of a larger suite of unrelated applications.

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