Scottish UFO researcher Malcolm Robinson has written to UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham demanding the government release all records on unidentified aerial phenomena, citing transparency.
Robinson, from Alloa, had previously approached Keir Starmer, but the Ministry of Defence told him Britain stopped keeping records on unexplained flying objects almost 20 years ago. He renewed his request with Starmer's successor, urging him to follow the example of the United States.
Earlier this summer the United States released dozens of files on unidentified aerial phenomena, including reports of spheres, discs and fireballs spotted in the sky over the past 80 years, some as recent as 2025.
In his letter, Robinson asks the British government to declassify all relevant records, reports and footage that can be safely released, and to set up an independent investigation into UAP sightings in the UK. He asks why the British government continues to reject calls for greater transparency when the United States is willing to acknowledge unexplained incursions into its airspace and present evidence to the public. He says the British people deserve to know what concerns their airspace and national security, and that since the United States has already begun this process, it is time for the United Kingdom to do the same.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, the 69-year-old said he was disappointed that his appeals to successive governments had never been heeded. He warned that if London's attitude remains one of indifference, he will ask the Scottish government to intervene. He said what is needed is clarity and transparency, that the UK has as big a mystery around UAP as anywhere else in the world, and that he wants the government to work with the United States and accept that vehicles which are not British helicopters or aircraft are moving through UK airspace. He added he would not have spent 45 years researching unexplained phenomena if he did not truly believe something real, tangible and of extraterrestrial origin was involved that requires an explanation.
The Calvine incident
Scotland was at the centre of UFO reports in the 1990s, especially after the Calvine incident of August 4, 1990. A hotel employee walking with a friend in hills near the A9 highway photographed a huge object hovering for about ten minutes beside a Harrier jet before it shot straight up and vanished. The case became one of the best-known cover-up theories after both the photograph and the man who took it disappeared from public view. In 2023 it emerged that the Ministry of Defence had asked for witness names to stay classified until 2076, citing data protection, instead of releasing them after the usual 30 years. Another well-known case is the Falkirk Triangle, dozens of reports of mysterious objects recorded over central Scotland.
Ministry of Defence response
The Ministry of Defence said it is aware of the recent declassification of US UAP files but does not comment on US security practices. It said no new material has been produced for investigating or recording UFO sightings, and there are no plans for a special agency or renewed investigations, as available resources focus solely on matters directly tied to national security. A spokesperson said nearly 60,000 pages of declassified documents on UFO reports and correspondence have already been transferred to the UK National Archives and are available to the public, though those files only cover the period up to the end of 2009.
