Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the Ministry of Defence (a) requires and (b) recommends on-site surveys by appropriately qualified specialists to determine the presence of military aircraft remains prior to construction works.

The Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (JCCC) works closely with other stakeholders, including the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), the Air Historical Branch (AHB) and local authorities to assess whether a licence should be issued according to the Protection of Military Remains Act (PoMRA)

guidelines. For a licence to be issued all requirements must be observed and adhered to. Full details of PoMRA can be found at the following link:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1986/35/contents

JCCC also works closely with the Historic England heritage crime prevention leads to monitor feedback on the process across the UK. To date, JCCC is not aware of any humans remains having been recovered during a major infrastructure which was not licenced.

JCCC does not require a survey to be undertaken, although for major infrastructure projects these are often carried out by the contractor responsible for the project before any digging commences. JCCC will usually only become aware of the intent to excavate the site of an aircraft crash through the receipt of a licence application. Occasionally, a third party may make JCCC aware of planned works. In these instances, if there is concern that the work at the site may disturb a crash site then JCCC would reach out to the contractor responsible to advise them of their responsibilities under the Act.

The role of JCCC is to process license applications subject to the criteria of the Act. On receipt of an application, checks are made with the DIO and against historic casualty records with the AHB, and a decision is made on whether to issue a licence or not based on the likelihood of human remains or unexploded ordnance being present at the site.

In circumstances where the scale of the infrastructure project means that a licence can be granted despite the possibility of human remains or ordnance being present, the applicant will be advised accordingly for their own safety and to preserve the dignity of any human remains which could be recovered. JCCC does not physically oversee excavations. 66 licences have been issued in the past 5 years, with many of these having been issued for infrastructure projects.

Guidelines on how to apply for a licence and further details of the process and regulations can be found at the following gov.uk link:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/aviation-archaeology

When a POMRA licence is issued a covering letter lists caveats and considerations that must be adhered to including what to do if human remains are disturbed or ordnance found.