§ Mrs. EwingTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) what actions he has taken to speed up the handling of requests for nuclear dosage records held by his Department; [29454]
(2) how many nuclear dosage records in his Department are (a) known to be missing and (b) known to be incomplete. [29455]
§ Mr. Spellar[holding answer 16 February 1998]: The law requires my Department to keep radiation dose records for Classified Radiation workers for 50 years (formerly 30 years). There is no reason to believe that any are incomplete or missing.
The law requires radiation records for non-classified radiation workers, with annual doses limited to 15 mSv, to be kept for two years only. My Department still holds many, but not all, of their records.
Classified Radiation Workers' records are maintained by Approved Dosimetry Services at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (Aldermaston) and at DERA Radiation Protection Services (Alverstoke). Most are held in computer formats which can normally be searched rapidly: some are held on microfiche or microfilm which take a little longer to search.
These Approved Dosimetry Services also hold the records of some non-classified radiation workers. But, many of their records are held locally in paper form. Searching for the local records has been a difficult process up to now. To reduce delays, I have instigated a programme to store digital images of these records and to index them on a computer database. The pilot for this project, involving all the local records for former Chatham Radiation Workers, has been completed. By the end of this financial year, I expect the project to incorporate local records from the other Naval nuclear establishments will be covered as soon as possible thereafter.
If an investigation into an incident finds that an employee has been significantly exposed to radiation, the law requires it to be entered into his record. Investigation reports relating to the overexposure of individuals are required to be kept for 50 years (formerly 30 years). This has always been MOD's practice. However, it is impossible to be certain that every minor incident was recorded.