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Written question asked by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative) on Monday, 1 September 2025, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Monday, 15 September 2025. It was answered by Lord Coaker (Labour) on Monday, 15 September 2025 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Veterans: Radiation Exposure

Question

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Coaker on 4 August (HL 9670), how many nuclear rest veterans have applied for no-fault compensation under the War Pension Scheme; how many have been granted compensation; and how many have died before their applications were considered.

Answer

The War Pensions Computer System currently lacks the capability to uniquely identify individuals who participated in nuclear tests. While the claim file might contain a copy of the Nuclear Test Veterans Priority Claim Request or other relevant information indicating the claimant's involvement in nuclear testing, this information is not consistently available.

To accurately determine the number of Nuclear Test Veterans who applied for or received compensation, or those who passed away before their application was reviewed, would require a manual interrogation of all War Pension files and could only be provided at a disproportionate cost.

Statistics on the War Pensions Scheme are published by the Ministry of Defence at the following link:

www.gov.uk/government/collections/war-pension-recipients-index

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
HL9949
Session
2024-26
Related items
Veterans: Radiation Exposure
Monday, 4 August 2025
Written questions
House of Lords
Subjects
Compensation Death Nuclear weapons Radiation exposure War pensions Veterans
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk