Bomb test veterans get green light to Sue MoD

Britain's atomic test veterans today won their High Court bid for the right to sue for compensation.

Around 1,000 servicemen who blame their ill-health on involvement in Britain's 1950s nuclear tests want to sue the Ministry of Defence.

The veterans, who took part in the programme on the Australian mainland, Monte Bello islands and Christmas Island between 1952 and 1958, say that new scientific evidence has shown links between exposure to ionising radiation and their conditions, which include cancer, skin defects and fertility problems.

Many of them are terminally ill and seven have died since the hearing at London's High Court in January.

The Ministry of Defence, while publicly acknowledging the "debt of gratitude" owed to the men, is fighting the multimillion-pound group action on the preliminary issue that it cannot proceed because it was launched outside the legal time limit.

Its QC, Charles Gibson, said that the law had been misconstrued and that evidence supporting the 10 individual "lead" cases did not come "remotely close" to proving a causal link.

Benjamin Browne QC, for the men, told Mr Justice Foskett that the claims were not time-barred as they could not proceed without the relevant "knowledge" and, in any case, it would be just in the circumstances to allow them to go ahead.

Today the veterans were given the green light by the High Court to proceed with the claims.