Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with regard to the records review exercise conducted into the MoD's blood testing programme on nuclear service personnel, what assessment he has made about why the UK Supreme Court was not made aware of it during previous relevant litigation.

The Supreme Court heard an appeal against the decision of the Court of Appeal on the question as to whether the lead claimants were barred from bringing claims under the Limitation Act 1980. As an appeal court, it does not receive or consider new evidence and considers the evidence provided to the trial court. For the purposes of the hearing in the High Court, the MOD disclosed around 12,000 documents, totalling around 225,000 pages. The disclosure exercise was targeted at documents relevant to the limitation point, and both the High Court and the Court of Appeal found that the MOD had gone beyond what it was ordered to provide. Accordingly, no assessment of this issue has been made.