Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether any environmental remediation to areas contaminated by the testing of British nuclear warheads in (a) the Nevada nuclear test site, (b) Montebello Island, Maralinga and Emu Field, Australia, (c) Malden Island and Kiritimati and (d) any location from which uranium used in the manufacture of nuclear warheads was procured has been carried out.

The UK Government has not undertaken any environmental remediation at the Nevada test site. In 1993, following a report of the Australian Royal Commission on the conduct of British nuclear tests in Australia, the UK Government made an ex gratia payment of £20 million to the Australian Government. This payment was part of a full and final settlement of the UK Government's liability for any claims resulting from the British test programme. The Ministry of Defence has made evaluations of residual contamination on Christmas Island: the last in 1998 concluded that any required remediation had been undertaken. The Ministry of Defence has made no evaluation of the locations from which uranium used in the manufacture of UK nuclear warheads was procured, nor made any environmental remediation.