HC Deb 26 March 1991 vol 188 cc397-9W
Mr. Patrick Thompson

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement about agency status for the chemical defence establishment at Porton Down.

Mr. Kenneth Carlisle

The chemical defence establishment at Porton Down will become a defence support agency on 1 April. The director of the establishment, Dr. G. S. Pearson, has been appointed the chief executive and will be known as the director general.

We are taking the opportunity of this new status to change the name of the establishment to the "chemical and biological defence establishment"—CBDE—to reflect more accurately its existing role in both chemical and biological defence.

There will be no change in the role of the agency. Its aim will continue to be to ensure that the British armed forces are protected from any chemical and biological warfare agents that might be used against them by an aggressor. The establishment's expertise is used to support the Ministry of Defence and other Government Departments. In particular, the establishment provides scientific and technical advice in support of the arms control negotiations in the field of chemical and biological weapons. It will continue to contribute to the negotiations at the conference on disarmament in Geneva aimed at achieving a comprehensive, effectively verifiable and global ban on chemical weapons. Research at CBDE also helps to improve health and safety in a wide range of civil activities—for example, the hazards from accidents in the chemical industry, detection of atmospheric pollutants, respiratory protection against toxic fumes and fire hazards and medical countermeasures applicable to the pesticide industry.

As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State said to the House on 18 October 1989, at columns 154–55, defence support agencies will be run on "next steps" lines but will remain within the defence chain of command. Such agencies are established within the MOD's new management strategy, under which we aim to secure better value for money for the defence budget through closer alignment of financial accountability with line management responsibilities, and by a system of performance reviews.

The establishment of the chemical and biological defence establishment as a defence support agency is another significant landmark in this process. The professional and internationally recognised standards which have contributed to the success of work at Porton Down for the last 75 years will continue to be upheld. The greater freedom and flexibility now granted to the director general will provide him with new opportunities to enhance the establishment's successful role.

The move to agency status will build upon CBDE's international reputation as a centre of scientific excellence by further improving the efficiency, effectiveness and quality of the work carried out by the establishment. In order to bring about these improvements, the director general has accordingly been set a range of challenging key performance targets.

These are as follows:

  1. (a) in 1991–92, to achieve, within agreed time scales, 80 per cent. of the chemical biological defence programme milestones required by the service chiefs of staff, and to seek progressive improvements in performance in future years;
  2. (b) in 1991–92, to achieve, to agreed cost, 80 per cent. of the chemical biological defence programme milestones required by the service chiefs of staff, and to seek progressive improvements in performance in future years;
  3. (c) to sustain the CBDE research programme and the capability of CBDE to respond effectively to operational emergencies by maintaining scientific and technical staff at least to the current proportion of 65 per cent. of the total planned manpower;
  4. (d) to increase the overall efficiency of CBDE by more than 1.5 per cent. over the financial year 1991–92;
  5. (e) to reduce progressively the full unit cost per scientific productive hour initially by 2 per cent. in the year ending 31 March 1993;
  6. (f) to continue and extend the programme of efficiency reviews and where appropriate market testing of support services and implement a programme for further studies so that more than 60 per cent. by cost of the support area has been reviewed by 31 March 1992 and thereby identify scope for programme cost reductions in future years;
  7. (g) to review and improve the existing resource allocation and cost attribution system by 31 March 1992 in order to identify and reduce unit costs;
  8. to develop the capacity of CBDE for corporate and business planning, and to produce revised plans and targets by 1 April 1992; and
  9. (j) to refine the customer/supplier objective setting procedures which set targets for timeliness and cost and to incorporate a mechanism for implementation in 1992 which will permit the customer to assess the quality of output in terms of research and of scientific and technical advice.

I wish the director general and his staff every success in the coming years.