Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Written Statement of 30 June 2025 on Nuclear Test Veteran records exercise and the Merlin database, HCWS748, which office the staff that are reviewing (a) the Merlin Database and (b) other archives are based in.

Teams from across the Ministry of Defence are involved in the Nuclear Test Veterans records exercise, and have reviewed so far over 43,000 files. The files in scope of the records exercise are primarily being reviewed by each of the Single Service Historic Branches and the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE). The release of the Merlin database to the National Archives is being led by the Defence Nuclear Organisation with AWE preparing the records for release.