Campaigners are seeking the release of records about the medical monitoring of troops during radiation experiments in the Cold War, after minister admits reviewing them is a “gargantuan” task
Minister tells defence committee Nuked Blood task is ‘gargantuan’
A top secret database could be declassified by Keir Starmer’s government as it investigates the Nuked Blood Scandal. The cache of 28,000 records is held by the Atomic Weapons Establishment, with all public access blocked under a blanket national security ban.
It is thought it could hold more than half a million pages of information about troops who were exposed to radiation as part of Cold War weapons tests. Veterans Minister Al Carns has suggested that previous governments had not looked at all the evidence before dismissing the scandal when it first came to light. But he also appeared to admit the task was too big.
“We’re doing a comprehensive review of all of the files. I think a lot of people have said things in the past without doing that larger review. It would be remiss of me to say I have seen, haven’t seen, have looked at a section, until that is done,” he told MPs. “We’re an analogue department so you’ve got 70, 80 years of files that are Yellow Pages-thick in hangars all over the UK… the scale of this issue is gargantuan.”
The database, codenamed Merlin, was created in 2007 to hold files relating to a personal injury claim brought by 1,011 nuclear veterans, which ultimately failed for lack of fresh evidence.
The records gathered at the time were scanned and stored on a stand-alone computer system, with access limited to a handful of AWE staff with high-level security clearance. The veterans’ lawyers were never allowed to search it for themselves.
* You can donate to the nuclear veterans’ search for the truth HERE
Its contents were closed with a legal ‘retention instrument’, signed off by government ministers, on the grounds the contents could aid terrorists, proliferate nuclear weapons, or damage relations with allies.
The Mirror forced the publication of 150 of the locked documents last year, showing evidence of a massive medical monitoring programme involving servicemen, civilians and indigenous people. There were no sensitive national security details, but instead years of evidence about a programme the MoD had denied took place.
An internal Ministry of Defence inquiry, led by Mr Carns, was announced a day after the scandal featured in a BBC documentary in November.
An insider with knowledge of the review said: “The minister is aware of this and other databases, and one option is a mass declassification of the entire thing. A drip-drip of revelations is not in veterans’ best interests.”
Last week, we revealed there are another 200 files about the blood test programme, the existence of which had been withheld from Parliament and ministers. South Shields MP Emma Lewell-Buck and New Forest East MP Sir Julian Lewis have both urged Mr Carns to declassify Merlin. He has refused to comment on the filing system, but told the Defence Select Committee he had not personally viewed files and would not blame official wrongdoing.
He said: “This is not a conspiracy theory, nefariousness, it’s usually bureaucracy and poor data management, whether that’s analogue or digital. But we will get to the bottom of it.”
