Officials have blamed a filing error for not revealing the existence of hundreds of documents about medical monitoring of troops during radiation experiments
Top secret papers about mass medical monitoring of troops during radiation experiments were withheld from Parliament, the Mirror can reveal.
Officials have blamed the mistake on a filing error, but it raises questions as to whether ministers are being told the truth about the extent of radiation experiments on servicemen during the Cold War.
And it throws into doubt a Ministry of Defence review, ordered after the Nuked Blood Scandal was featured in a 75-minute BBC documentary in November.
Veterans lawyer Jason McCue said: “The idea of our veterans being told to wait, while ministers ask officials if they wouldn’t mind telling the truth is frankly ridiculous.There is a mounting pile of evidence to show the only truth the MoD admits to is the one the Mirror has just uncovered. Well no more. It is time ministers told Parliament what they have found, and sit down with veterans’ representatives to discuss a rapid resolution before this mess gets any worse.”
If troops were monitored while being knowingly exposed to radiation without their informed consent, the results withheld whether through negligence or intent, and pensions denied when they later fell ill, damages could top £5billion. Mr McCue added: “It’s becoming clear that the shroud of secrecy around the nuclear test programme is now not protecting us from foreign malign influences, but protecting the government from its duty of responsibility to our nuclear test veterans.”
The newly-discovered papers were found at the Atomic Weapons Establishment, which holds an historic archive in a database classified on the grounds of national security. In 2023, it admitted there were “more than 150” documents on it relating to blood and urine testing of troops.
After the Mirror obtained a list of titles, MPs forced a minister to declassify 151 files last May, revealing 4,000 pages of evidence about the monitoring programme as well as individual medical records. The AWE insisted it did not hold any documents about blood or urine testing “above the 151 documents that have already been released”. Former minister Andrew Murrison confirmed to the Mirror he took officials at their word when making statements about the matter to Parliament.
The Mirror has now discovered there are at least another 250 files, amounting to an estimated 10,000 pages, that reference blood tests, and whose existence should have been disclosed in ministerial briefings and Freedom of Information requests.
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Some are monthly “pathology reports” detailing the blood tests conducted on troops, written by medics at Australian air bases in use by crews taking part in the weapon tests. Another is a 12-page document relating to troops serving at Maralinga in South Australia in 1956, where Britain conducted seven nuclear blasts and a further 600 explosive radiation experiments.
It is an “administrative instruction” warning all personnel may be exposed and that “the damaging effects may not develop for some time”. It orders pre-employment medical tests to provide a baseline, and regular checks every few months. Blood tests, it says, “should always be carried out in the forenoon before lunch”. It sets limits for blood results below which men should be removed from duty, and orders them to be duplicated for personnel files.
The instruction was produced for the Australian military, but the same orders were given for UK troops. British and Australian veterans all report that when they access their medical records, those parts relating to the weapon tests are missing. In both countries, they are routinely refused war pensions on the basis their personnel files hold no proof of exposure.
Sources said the documents we discovered were wrongly tagged with the word “pathology” instead of “blood” in the AWE computer system, and were not found when first searched. They confirmed the current review would now be widened. A spokesman for Veterans Minister Al Carns said he had ordered staff to “look seriously into unresolved questions regarding medical records as a priority”. He added: “This work will be comprehensive, and it will enable us to better understand what information the department holds.”
The new legal action compels the MoD to produce the missing records or pay compensation. Veterans have offered a cheaper deal, with a one year special tribunal to uncover the truth and deliver compensation quicker. But ministers have yet to instruct government lawyers on how to respond. They have also batted away requests from MPs to announce a deadline.