To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what his Department’s policy is on reporting Unidentified Aerial Phenomena; and whether new material has been classified on the subject since the UK’s declassification programme.
Answered on
11 December 2024
Whilst we are aware of the differing approaches currently being undertaken by other countries and allies in the investigation of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), the Ministry of Defence's (MOD) position on UAP remains unchanged, which is, that in over 50 years, no sighting reported to the Department has indicated the existence of any military threat to the United Kingdom.
The MOD ceased to investigate reports of UFO or UAP in 2009 and has not classified any new material on the subject since. It has been deemed more valuable to prioritise MOD staff towards other Defence-related activities. For this reason, there are no current plans to create a dedicated team to investigate incidences of alleged sightings. All MOD files relating to UFOs that were created up until 2009 have been released to The National Archives (TNA).