Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the report to Prime Minister Churchill’s Cabinet, and minutes thereof, on the result of the British atomic test at Monte Bello in 1952, as referenced in the Official Report, 4 February 1983, vol 36 c209W, has been released under the 30-year rule.

This information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

The British atomic test at Monte Bello in 1952 was the first test of a British atomic device and consequently there are many records on this subject. Some have been released to The National Archives, but many contain sensitive technical information about the United Kingdom's nuclear weapons programme and are retained. It has not been possible to determine which record may contain the report and minutes in question, due to the limited details on them and the time that has elapsed since the answer referenced in Official Report, 4 February 1983.