The Ministry of Defence has acknowledged that a confidential government facility gathered medical records of veterans who participated in nuclear tests. These records, totaling up to 50,000 paper files stored in a controlled environment, were collected by scientists at Porton Down. Despite a two-year investigation into missing medical records of veterans involved in Cold War bomb tests, the cache of files remains unexamined.
MP Rebecca Long-Bailey has called for a thorough examination of the records to determine their contents and relevance to the missing files sought by veterans. A group of MPs has written to Defence Secretary Wes Streeting urging him to investigate the archive, as many veterans have reported missing medical files from Britain’s atomic experiments.
In 2022, the Mirror revealed that thousands of veterans received blood, urine, and thyroid tests that were previously denied, along with chest x-rays during the weapons trials. A review in 2024 failed to locate most records, suggesting that the blood tests were either not conducted or destroyed. However, a warehouse in Swadlincote, Derbyshire, was identified to hold 50,000 paper records related to historic radiation exposure, including medical records of at least one atomic serviceman.
The archive, managed by a private contractor named Restore, is associated with the Defence Science Technology Laboratory (Porton Down), a secretive facility conducting classified research. The digital version of the records is maintained by Defence Radiation Protection Services in Gosport, Hampshire, with access restrictions imposed by the Ministry of Defence’s administrative arm.
Despite the merger of DRPS with the Atomic Weapons Establishment, no search can be conducted on the archives without specific permissions. Veteran John Morris expressed frustration over the lack of access to his potential medical records within the archive. The Ministry of Defence stated that a comprehensive review was undertaken, processing over 100,000 items, with no evidence of intentional concealment found.
Efforts to contact Restore for further comments are ongoing.