Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 24 February 2025 to Question 31001 on Veterans: War Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the level of the burden on British nuclear test veterans applying to the War Pension Scheme to prove they had experienced a radiation dose.

This Government is deeply grateful to all those who participated in the UK nuclear testing programme. We recognise their Service and the huge contribution they have made to the UK’s security.

I am committed to looking into questions around medical records. That is why I have commissioned officials to look into what information the Department holds in relation to the medical testing of Service personnel who took part in the UK nuclear weapons tests. This is a priority and is now underway.

Altogether there were around 22,000 participants in the nuclear weapons tests, of which up to just over 6,000 veterans were involved in two or more operations. Dose monitoring records are available for 4,807 (23%) of the around 22,000 veterans considered in the most recent analysis of the data in the Nuclear Weapons Test Participants Study – a long-term epidemiological study of the health of veterans who were present at UK nuclear testing between 1952 and 1967. It has been undertaken by the National Radiological Protection Board and Cancer Research UK (formerly the Imperial Cancer Research Fund) following a commission from the Ministry of Defence in 1983. There have been four studies completed to date, which so far have concluded that Nuclear Test Veterans have a similar incidence of cancer and, in general, a longer healthy life expectancy that the control group of individuals.

Nuclear Test Veterans are already entitled to apply for compensation under the War Pension Scheme. There is no time limit for claiming, however if a claim is made more than seven years after termination of service, as would be the case for Nuclear Test Veterans, the claimant is granted the benefit of doubt when there is uncertainty about whether the disablement is linked to or worsened by their service. Factors such as being on operations or in a hazardous environment can support a service-related claim. Claims handlers will review historical records, including medical records, to establish a causal link to service for Nuclear Test Veterans seeking compensation.