MILITARY veterans who took part in nuclear weapons tests have offered to settle their legal claims with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) through a special tribunal following attempts to access their “illegally withheld” medical records.
Some of the claimants said they have had cancer, blood disorders and lost children, while their descendants have spoken of being born with obvious disabilities.
According to the MoD, more than 20,000 military personnel were present at the British nuclear weapon tests between 1952 and 1967 in Australia and the South Pacific.
Veterans and their next-of-kin served a “letter before action” on the MoD today, setting out the details of their claims to settle the matter “efficiently, and quickly.”
The claimants believe a special tribunal would be a fast-track method of investigating, compensating and commemorating alleged victims.
Brian Unthank, of Erith, Kent, said he had 92 skin cancers removed and lost 13 children to miscarriage; 20 years of his annual medical records are also missing.
He said: “I am one of the lucky ones. I am 86, still here and still fighting.
“I was proud to serve my country, and it saddens me that I am now forced to serve it again with a legal action.”
Labrats campaign group founder Alan Owen said: “The youngest survivors are now in their mid-80s, and they’ve seen other injustices — like Hillsborough, infected blood, and the Post Office — grind on for decades, at huge cost to everyone.
“That’s why our legal team has made an offer to the MoD to settle this efficiently, and quickly. No-one can afford to wait any longer.”
An MoD spokeswoman said that “no information is withheld from veterans” and all medical records “are held in individual military medical records in the government’s archives, which can be accessed on request.”
Veterans have said blood and urine samples taken at cold war weapons trials have been reclassified as “scientific data” and placed at the Atomic Weapons Establishment — an agency of the MoD — meaning they cannot be accessed.
Sources at the MoD said the archives thither have been searched on numerous occasions and do not contain the medical records of service personnel.
Veterans have campaigned for years over illnesses they say were caused by radiation exposure, in a fight which reached the Supreme Court in 2012, where 1,011 test cases lost their bid to be allowed to seek compensation.
The claimants say they can prove the nuclear testing was repeatedly ordered over 10 years and up to 100 per cent of personnel at some operations were affected.
Veterans also claim ministers have repeatedly misled Parliament and that they blocked information being given to next of kin in 2022.
It is also claimed that military medical files have been edited to remove all records from their time at the tests, making it difficult to claim war pensions based on radiation-related injury.
