Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the Government has retained records of the health monitoring carried out during UK nuclear tests in the 1950s and 1960s.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
As is normal practice, Service medical records are retained for nuclear test participants, but these individual military medical records are not held centrally.
Records held by the Atomic Weapons Establishment include those related to the single use film badges, which, as is normal practice, were destroyed after their measurements were recorded. In some cases measurements were not taken because the badges were lost or damaged in situ. Where measurements were found to align with background levels readings were, in some cases, not retained.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what information his Department holds on the fate of the film badges worn by veterans who were present during the British nuclear tests carried out in the 1950s and 1960s.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
As is normal practice, Service medical records are retained for nuclear test participants, but these individual military medical records are not held centrally.
Records held by the Atomic Weapons Establishment include those related to the single use film badges, which, as is normal practice, were destroyed after their measurements were recorded. In some cases measurements were not taken because the badges were lost or damaged in situ. Where measurements were found to align with background levels readings were, in some cases, not retained.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what information his Department holds on the radiation readings measured by the film badges worn by veterans during the nuclear tests carried out in the 1950s and 1960s.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
As is normal practice, Service medical records are retained for nuclear test participants, but these individual military medical records are not held centrally.
Records held by the Atomic Weapons Establishment include those related to the single use film badges, which, as is normal practice, were destroyed after their measurements were recorded. In some cases measurements were not taken because the badges were lost or damaged in situ. Where measurements were found to align with background levels readings were, in some cases, not retained.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what information his Department holds on the alpha radiation contamination on Christmas Island during the UK nuclear tests in the 1950s and 1960s.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
Alpha radiation was not routinely measured to monitor the environment because measuring beta and gamma radiation was more efficient.
Alpha monitoring equipment was held at Christmas Island as a contingency in the event of an accident, but was never required.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what information his Department holds on the (a) protection and (b) safety training that was provided to service personnel who collected monitoring equipment and assessed bomb damage after the UK nuclear tests in the 1950s and 1960s.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
Information is held which confirms that regulations were in place to ensure that protection and safety information was given by the officer responsible to all personnel involved in each task. This included subjects such as basic training in nuclear weapon effect and health physics for all ranks, personal protection and issue and use of protective clothing and dosemeters and training in radiological safety.
The tests took place over or off an uninhabited part of Christmas Island. Inhabitants of other parts of the island would have been protected by generic safety precautions such as designated restricted areas.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what information his Department holds on the (a) protection and (b) safety training that was provided to Christmas Island inhabitants during the nuclear tests on that island in the 1950s and 1960s.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
Information is held which confirms that regulations were in place to ensure that protection and safety information was given by the officer responsible to all personnel involved in each task. This included subjects such as basic training in nuclear weapon effect and health physics for all ranks, personal protection and issue and use of protective clothing and dosemeters and training in radiological safety.
The tests took place over or off an uninhabited part of Christmas Island. Inhabitants of other parts of the island would have been protected by generic safety precautions such as designated restricted areas.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what information his Department holds on the mental health of veterans involved in UK nuclear testing in the 1950s and 1960s.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
The Ministry of Defence does not hold information on the mental health of veterans of the UK's atmospheric nuclear weapons tests.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the number of aircrew who flew through mushroom clouds on UK nuclear test sampling missions in the 1950s and 1960s that are still alive.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
We do not hold this information nor have we estimated the number of aircrew still alive.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what information his Department holds on what information nuclear veterans were given on the exposure risks relating to the nuclear tests they were involved in during the 1950s and 1960s.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
Information is held which confirms that regulations were in place to ensure that protection and safety information was given by the officer responsible to all personnel involved in each task. This included subjects such as basic training in nuclear weapon effect and health physics for all ranks, personal protection and issue and use of protective clothing and dosemeters and training in radiological safety.
The tests took place over or off an uninhabited part of Christmas Island. Inhabitants of other parts of the island would have been protected by generic safety precautions such as designated restricted areas.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Wyre Forest (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, which Government Ministers have used RAF aircraft on official business for what purposes on what dates since July 2016.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
Information on Ministerial travel is published on a quarterly transparency return on ww.gov.uk.