Our Reference:CPSC/700/7/3

Mr Richard Moyes

By Email

Date: 06 February 2009

Dear Mr Moyes,

FOI REQUEST 02-02-2009-130311-020 MOYES

Thank you for your online Information Request Form on the MOD website
dated 2 February 2009 and our subsequent telephone conversation on 4
February requesting information on Cluster Munitions in Falklands
Conflict. The first part referred to the location of Cluster Munitions
and the second part was refined to an understanding of the new obligation
for clearance given the signing of the Oslo Convention.

Part 1

Q. What information does the UK hold on the locations where cluster
munitions were used in the Falkland Islands during the 1982 conflict?

A. The most authoritative source of information on the possible
locations of BL755 sub-munitions is contained in the Cranfield University
Field Survey Report into the Feasibility of Clearing Landmines in the
Falklands Islands dated 9 July 2007. This pulled together previous
records and gives the likely areas that the UK will have to carry out
deliberate clearance operations to remove BL755 bomblets. We are aware
that you have a copy of this document, so will not repeat the information
in this correspondence.

Part 2

Q) What information is held on the clearance of unexploded
sub-munitions in there locations? During out telephone conversation this
was refined to information on the extent of the UK's new obligation to
clear the remnants of cluster munitions in the Falkland Islands?

A) According to historical records either 106 or 107 Cluster Bomb
Units (CBU) were dropped by British Harriers and Sea Harriers during the
conflict. Each CBU contains 147 BL755 sub-munitions and using the higher
CBU figure (107), a total of 15729 sub-munitions were dropped. Using a
6.4% failure rate assessed during in-service surveillance over 15 years,
we would estimate that 1006 would not explode. Given that 1378 BL 755s
were cleared in the first year after the conflict and that a further 120
have been found and disposed of since (totalling 1498), clearly there was
a slightly higher failure rate. Even if the rate had been closer to 10%
and 1573 had failed, we can only estimate that some 70 remain but that due
to the very soft nature of the peat found on the islands, many of these
will have been buried well below the surface. We believe that the
majority of those remaining are now contained within existing minefields
and these will be cleared in due course.

I attach an Excel spreadsheet of unexploded ordnance disposal data by year
from 1 July 1983 to 31 December 1990 and from 31 December 2004 to 31
December 2006. Only 1 BL755 sub-munition has been recovered since this
was compiled (Found on 2 November 2007). This is the information we can
obtain within allowable timescales.

If you are unhappy with this response or you wish to complain about any
aspect of the handling of your request, then you should contact me in the
first instance. If informal resolution is not possible and you are still
dissatisfied then you may apply for an independent internal review by
contacting the Director of Information Exploitation, 6^th Floor, MOD Main
Building, Whitehall, SW1A 2HB (e-mail [email address]). Please note that
any request for an internal review must be made within two calendar months
of the date on which the attempt to reach informal resolution has come to
an end.

If you remain unhappy following an internal review, you may take your
complaint to the Information Commissioner under the provisions of Section
50 of the Freedom of Information Act. Please note that the Information
Commissioner will not investigate the case until the internal review
process has been completed. Further details of the role and powers of the
Information Commissioner can be found on the Commissioner's website,
[1]http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk .

Yours sincerely

Scott Malina-Derben

References

Visible links
1. http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/