MoD Faces Maximum Sanction Over Fatal Tank Explosion
The Health and Safety Executive has authorised a Crown Censure of the Ministry of Defence — the maximum sanction available against a government body — over the deaths of Corporals Darren Neilson and Matthew Hatfield, killed when a gun exploded on their Challenger 2 tank at Castlemartin Range in Pembrokeshire in 2017. Defence contractor Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land will face criminal prosecution. Two other soldiers were injured, one with life-changing injuries; a formal hearing follows.
Nine years after the explosion, this is the ceiling of accountability the system allows: the Crown cannot prosecute itself, so a censure — an administrative acknowledgment that evidence would have justified prosecution — stands in for the trial the MoD cannot face, while its contractor answers charges in court. The censure alleges a failure to ensure soldiers’ health, safety and welfare under the Health and Safety at Work Act. It lands as defence spending rises and armed-forces welfare awaits the incoming government’s attention. Watch the censure hearing date, the contractor’s plea, and whether the families’ long campaign finally produces changes to ammunition-handling practice.