Nuclear veterans' medical record handling haphazard, report finds

Report finds secrecy impacted handling of nuclear test veterans' records Image caption, Nuclear test veterans met then Labour opposition leader, Sir Keir Starmer, in 2021, campaigning for full disclosure of the impact of the UK's nuclear bomb testing programme. High levels of Cold War secrecy were a factor in the haphazard approach taken towards the medical records of nuclear test veterans, an official report has found. The lack of a centralised approach means that the system will appear complex and inconsistent to the veterans who have been campaigning for the full release of their medical records. The findings come in a series of official documents released by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in response to years of campaigning by the veterans. Andy Burnham spoke up in favour of the nuclear test veterans on Tuesday evening in his first speech in parliament since his re-election last month, endorsing their call for a special tribunal. As many as 25,000 members of the UK armed services, scientists and civilians took part in the nuclear testing programme between 1952 and 1967 at sites including Australia and several islands in the Pacific Ocean.