A former minister of defense has acknowledged that he provided misleading information to Parliament regarding critical medical records associated with veterans of nuclear bomb tests. Tobias Ellwood stated that in 2018, he unintentionally misinformed Members of Parliament when he claimed he could not find data on veterans’ blood tests, having received erroneous guidance from officials at the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
Veterans have campaigned for years to access these records in order to substantiate claims that serious illnesses, including cancer, are linked to their participation in nuclear weapons testing. Ellwood’s admission is likely to intensify scrutiny on the MoD, compelling it to clarify whether its officials have hindered these veterans from obtaining justice.
In an article for the Guardian, Ellwood explained, “In December 2018, while serving as defense minister, I inadvertently misled Parliament. When asked if blood samples were taken from service members for radiological monitoring during the nuclear tests, I conveyed what the Ministry of Defence had informed me: it was ‘unable to locate any information’ indicating that blood samples had been collected for such monitoring during the tests. I now understand that the situation was markedly different—these samples were indeed taken from various branches of the armed services. Yet, veterans seeking compensation for illnesses developed due to radiation exposure have not been able to access this information.”
Ellwood emphasized, “This is one of the greatest scandals in Britain, and it must be addressed.”
An MoD representative responded, stating, “The government undertook a thorough records discovery initiative, reviewing tens of thousands of documents to answer long-standing inquiries from veterans regarding blood and urine testing policies during the nuclear testing program. The findings have been fully published, following consistent communication between ministers, nuclear test veterans, and community organizations throughout this process.”
From 1952 to 1967, approximately 22,000 British military personnel participated in 45 significant nuclear weapons tests in Australia and the South Pacific. Some pilots flew through mushroom clouds, while others crawled through fallout, with many exposed to the tests wearing minimal protective clothing.
A considerable number of these veterans later developed blood disorders and cancers, which they attribute to exposure to radioactive fallout. Most were denied pensions due to their health issues.
Unlike other nuclear-capable nations such as France, the United States, and the Soviet Union, the UK has not provided compensation to those involved in atomic bomb testing.
This situation has drawn parallels to the infected blood scandal, which resulted in over 30,000 individuals contracting HIV and Hepatitis C during the 1970s and early 1990s from contaminated blood products.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has previously stated that he was misled by officials when he, as health secretary in 2009, asserted there was no evidence that individuals had been knowingly administered contaminated blood. His statements resonate with those of Ellwood today.
Burnham has also expressed strong support for the nuclear test veterans in recent years. As the Mayor of Greater Manchester in 2022, he remarked, “If the state was conducting medical tests on servicemen and failing to inform them upon discovering serious irregularities, that constitutes at least misconduct in public office, and potentially gross negligence manslaughter for those who died as a result. Crimes have been committed.”
The Prime Minister is now facing pressure to initiate an inquiry and allocate government funds for compensation to the affected veterans.
A significant obstacle in securing compensation has been the absence of medical evidence linking the health issues of veterans to their participation in nuclear tests. The government has long asserted that it did not possess any medical records, a claim that was disproven in 2022 when journalist Susie Boniface uncovered a database of 28,000 documents known as Merlin.
This database was compiled in response to a 2007 lawsuit filed by 1,000 British test veterans and their families, but the information had been classified. Ellwood has stated that he only became aware of this database in 2022 when details began to surface in the media.
He concluded his article with a pointed question: “If this information existed within the MoD, why had ministers not been provided with the complete picture?”
