A former defence minister has accused the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of deliberately withholding nuclear test veterans records and of briefing ministers, including himself, with information he now believes was false. Tobias Ellwood told BBC Newsnight he considers the matter an ‘absolute cover-up’ and says it exceeds the infected blood, Windrush and Post Office scandals in scale and duration.
Ellwood: ministers were told ‘nothing to see here’
Ellwood, who served as a junior defence minister between June 2017 and July 2019, said he had been briefed by the MoD that there was no evidence to help veterans of the UK’s nuclear testing programme. He now believes those briefings were false. ‘I now believe some information I gave to Parliament, based on MoD briefings, was a complete lie,’ he told Newsnight.
He said documents had been ‘deliberately withheld’ and alleged there was an effort to delay their release until surviving veterans had died. ‘The more you unpick this story, the more murky, the more shady, the concerning it becomes,’ Ellwood said, describing it as ‘a scandal’ that had ‘absolutely tarnished the reputation of the MoD.’
Ellwood called for an independent tribunal, asking why the MoD had ‘closed ranks’ rather than releasing information to help veterans. He conceded that some documents were to be transferred to the National Archives but said they would remain ‘heavily redacted’ and that declassification was necessary. ‘This isn’t enough to help the veterans, who understandably remain deeply angry,’ he said.
What the nuclear test veterans records actually show
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. Veterans have campaigned for the release of their medical histories, arguing blood and urine test results could prove that nuclear exposure damaged their health.
They have alleged suffering from cancers of the liver, bone, bowel, skin and brain, as well as leukaemia, heart disease, stillbirths and generational birth defects as a result of their exposure.
Court case correspondence between British nuclear test veterans and the MoD revealed there are 370 documents mentioning blood and urine tests relating to nuclear test veterans, according to The Canary.
A further complication concerns accessibility. A digital version of veterans’ medical records is held by Defence Radiation Protection Services, based in Gosport, Hampshire, and cannot be searched without specific individual permissions from Defence Business Services, according to the Mirror. Defence Radiation Protection Services is a separate part of the MoD.
Meanwhile, the transfer of records from the Merlin Database, held by the Atomic Weapons Establishment, to The National Archives began in September 2025 and is anticipated to take a year to complete.
MoD response
An MoD spokesperson said the government had conducted an ‘extensive records discovery exercise’ and had examined ‘tens of thousands of documents to address long-standing questions from veterans about blood and urine testing policies during the nuclear testing programme.’ The findings were said to have been published in full, following ‘regular engagement between Ministers, nuclear test veterans and community groups throughout the process.’
The MoD said there were a number of factors affecting the way medical records were kept historically, including the lack of a centralised approach and high levels of Cold War ‘secrecy.’ Since a commitment made in 2024 to conduct a comprehensive examination of relevant information, the department has released five reports.
‘We owe an enduring debt of gratitude to the more than 22,000 Service personnel, scientists and civilians who contributed to the UK’s nuclear testing programme and helped safeguard our national security,’ the spokesperson said.
Andy Burnham previously described the treatment of nuclear test veterans records as a cover-up, according to a report published on 25 June 2025. A separate report on the handling of those records, published on 15 July, found that Cold War secrecy had materially affected how records were managed. The Merlin Database transfer to The National Archives is expected to be complete within a year of its September 2025 start date.
