PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Radiation Exposure (13 May 2019)

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the EU Directive 96/29/Euratom on safety standards relating to ionizing radiation, whether (a) former armed service personnel involved in nuclear testing and (b) all those persons potentially exposed to ionizing radiation are receiving medical screening by specialists in radiation medicine independent of the Ministry of Defence.

Asked by:
Sir John Hayes (Conservative)

Medical surveillance of classified radiation workers, as required by the Ionising Radiation Regulations 2017 (IRR 17), is an assessment of an individual’s medical fitness to work with ionising radiation. A classified radiation worker is a person who works with ionising radiation who could be exposed to higher levels of ionising radiation levels under both normal work and accident conditions. This assessment is performed by a doctor appointed by the Health and Safety Executive. Appointed Doctors have training in occupational medicine and have received additional training in the relevant aspects of the nature and effects of ionising radiation.

Medical surveillance should occur prior to being classified and every 12 months thereafter, unless the doctor specifies a shorter review period.

Special Medical surveillance by an Appointed Doctor must be arranged for any employee who has received, or is suspected to have received, an overexposure to ionising radiation, whether or not they are a classified person. The extent and nature of this will depend upon the circumstances of each individual case.

The employer decides which Appointed Doctor(s) they will use to carry out medical surveillance. Whether or not the Appointed Doctor is an employee of that organisation, or independent of it, is a matter for the employer to decide upon.

In the context of IRR 17, former armed services personnel involved in nuclear testing would be considered in the same way as any other workers exposed to ionising radiation in respect of the need for either medical surveillance or special medical surveillance.

Answered by:
Justin Tomlinson (Conservative)
21 May 2019