Recognising the Campaigning Efforts of Nuclear Test Veterans and Ken McGinley

That the Parliament notes that National Atomic Veterans Awareness Day 2023 took place on 1 October; acknowledges that 2023 also marks the 40th anniversary of the founding of the British Nuclear Test Veterans Association (BNTVA); commends veterans from across the country, including in Aberdeen, for their efforts to gain justice and accountability for over 22,000 servicemen who it understands participated in the British and American nuclear tests and clean-ups between 1952 and 1965; understands that epidemiological studies of atomic veterans have shown exposure to radiation to be associated with several illnesses, including leukaemia, various other cancers and cataracts; further understands that the majority of men have passed away and that only around a tenth of the veterans from the Army, Royal Air Force, Royal Navy, Merchant Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary remain; applauds BNTVA's founding chairman, Ken McGinley, of Johnstone, for his heroic efforts in advising, supporting and campaigning for his fellow nuclear test veterans and their families, including, it understands, successfully obtaining a ruling in November 1996 where a unanimous decision of all 26 Commissioners of the European Commission of Human Rights at Strasbourg found that the UK had violated the test veterans' human rights, under the European Convention of Human Rights, by denying them access to their medical records and other documents necessary to establish disability pension claims, and notes the belief that the fight for justice for these veterans and their families must continue.