Paul Flynn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2016-01-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, on how many occasions since 1 January 2014 explosives stored at the Atomic Weapons Establishment have been found to be wrongly labelled; on what date it was discovered that such explosives were wrongly labelled; and what (a) types and (b) quantities of explosives were involved in each such case.

Michael Fallon

Since 1 January 2014, there have been two occasions on which anomalies have been discovered in the labelling of explosives at the Atomic Weapons Establishment. In each case a small discrepancy was discovered through the checking and accounting process in place. In neither case were any explosive licence limits exceeded, and there was no requirement to notify the Authority or the Regulator.

On 14 August 2015, it was identified that a container labelled as containing 0.054 Kg of explosives actually contained 0.063 Kg.

On 6 January 2016, it was identified that a container labelled as containing 0.10716 Kg of explosives actually contained 0.0872 Kg.

The explosives concerned were Hazard Type 1.