§ Mr. AshleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) if he will request the National Radiological Protection Board to produce an update of its report on the mortality of nuclear test veterans;
(2) if he will detail the nature of the work that is proceeding with the study by the National Radiological Protection Board of the mortality of nuclear test veterans.
§ Mr. Sainsbury[holding answer 15 May 1989]: Details of deaths of nuclear test veterans are currently flagged at the National Health Service central register and are passed to the NRPB. This information is then added to NRPB's database which maintains a record of all deaths and personnel present during the test programme together with the control group. The NRPB is examining the position this year (five years from the previous cut off date) and will advise whether the major effort of a full scale statistical analysis would be justified.