Nuclear veterans seek tribunal to resolve legal claims over ‘withheld’ records

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Military veterans who took part in nuclear weapons tests have offered to settle their legal claims with the Ministry of Defence through a “special tribunal” following attempts to gain access to medical records they claim have been illegally withheld. As part of the legal claim, veterans have said 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. “We only want the bloody truth.” Nuclear veteran descendant Alan Owen, and founder of campaign group LABRATS, said: “The youngest survivors are now in their mid-80s, and they’ve seen other injustices – like Hillsborough, infected blood, and the Post Office – grind on for decades, at huge cost to everyone. “It remains the case that no information is withheld from veterans and any medical records taken either before, during or after participation in the UK nuclear weapon tests are held in individual military medical records in the government’s archives, which can be accessed on request.”