Nuked Blood review by ministers is "yet another cover-up", say campaigners

Nuclear veterans have accused Labour of “yet another cover-up” over the Nuked Blood Scandal after an admission that no money has been set aside to investigate it.

The announced an internal inquiry last year into allegations that servicemen, civilians and indigenous people were for health effects by scientists.

Defence Secretary John Healey had promised a “thorough review” of the ’s evidence about the medical monitoring programme a day after a highlighted the scandal.

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Six months on, Veterans Minister Al Carns has admitted no money has been made available for it.

He said: “While there is no ring-fenced budget associated with this exercise, I have directed teams across the Ministry of Defence and Atomic Weapons Establishment to deliver the records exercise in a meaningful way.”

He said even counting how many staff were working on it would distract them from the task.

“Many officials from across the department are involved in roles ranging from supporting the recall of files from various archives, to analysing the files. Collating information on the number of officials involved would be time consuming and detract from those officials delivering the records exercise itself,” claimed Mr Carns in answer to a written Parliamentary question.

But campaigners have pointed out that the minister is asking the to now search for it. The inquiry is being headed by the Air Historical Branch, part of the MoD tasked with holding RAF archives, and which has repeatedly told veterans it can find no trace of blood and urine tests they can recall having.

Alan Owen, founder of campaign group LABRATS, said: “A review without money behind it is just there to give the ministers cover if asked what they’re doing. Unless there is a budget, and a dedicated external team, there is no hope of getting any answers.

"You can’t end a 70-year scandal on a shoestring. This is yet another cover-up of the truth, which is that the UK government experimented with radiation on its own people.”

A £5bn court case is pending but it is understood the review is not looking for them directly. Instead it is searching through decades of policy documents to see if there was a minuted decision to hide the files. Officials are being asked to complete the mammoth search on top of their usual tasks, and Mr Carns has experienced resistance at his requests to hit deadlines. He has refused to say when the review will be complete.

He told Parliament: "At this stage, we cannot confirm when the records exercise will be complete. We are not currently certain how many files need to be reviewed, and the content of those files varies significantly over time and between the services."

Although the average age of surviving veterans is 86 and many of them have waited decades for the truth already, an MoD insider insisted the review simply needed more time. He said: “Al is going about this in a very systematic and serious way. It has logic, it is thorough, although it might not seem direct enough at the moment.”