Criminal sanctions could be brought over harm suffered by nuclear test veterans

Criminal sanctions could be brought against the people who exposed veterans to radiation during nuclear tests, Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds has suggested.

Veterans and their families have been calling for a special tribunal to investigate their claims of health harm as a result of the nuclear tests and to compensate them accordingly.

Some of the claimants have said they had cancer, blood disorders and lost children as a result of the nuclear weapons tests.

At the Labour Party conference in September, Sir Keir Starmer said a Hillsborough Law requiring a duty of candour on public officials was also a law for “all the countless injustices over the years suffered by working people at the hands of those who were supposed to serve them”.

According to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), more than 20,000 military personnel were present at the UK nuclear weapon tests between 1952 and 1967 in Australia and the South Pacific.

During Cabinet Office questions on Thursday, Labour MP Emma Lewell-Buck (South Shields) asked: “Can I please ask (Mr Thomas-Symonds) if the duty of candour in Hillsborough Law will apply to the 70-year long nuclear test veteran scandal?”

Mr Thomas-Symonds replied: “We are looking to introduce a very broad duty of candour, a general duty of candour. I should also point out that criminal sanctions are going to be really important to punish the most egregious breaches.

“And I’m pleased to confirm to the House today, as the Prime Minister announced in September, that the Bill we will bring forward will include criminal sanctions.”

In March this year, veterans and their next-of-kin served a “letter before action” on the MoD, asking for a special tribunal, following attempts to gain access to medical records.

Veterans have alleged that blood and urine samples taken at the Cold War weapons trials have been reclassified as “scientific data” and placed at the Atomic Weapons Establishment – an agency of the MoD – which means they cannot be accessed.

The MoD previously said “that no information is withheld from veterans”.

The Prime Minister confirmed that the legislation would be introduced to Parliament before the next anniversary of the 1989 football stadium disaster in April.