§ Mr. SandersTo ask the Prime Minister what actions the Government will take to implement the decision of the European Commission of Human Rights in respect of legal rights of British nuclear test veterans to obtain war pensions and compensation for radiation-linked illnesses. [1916]
§ The Prime MinisterThe European Commission of Human Rights has referred two cases relating to British nuclear test veterans to the European Court of Human Rights for decision. The cases will be heard in November 1997 and the Government will contest the cases because we do not agree that the lack of contemporaneous yield and radiation records prevented nuclear test veterans from getting a fair hearing before the Pensions Appeal Tribunal. The studies of the health of the test veterans, conducted by the National Radiological Protection Board and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, concluded that participation in the nuclear weapons testing programme had had no long term detectable effect on the veterans expectation of life or on their risk of developing cancer.