§ Mr. Matthew TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the types of experiments carried out on human volunteers at the chemical and biological defence establishment at Porton Down in the last four years. [117091]
§ Dr. MoonieThis is a matter for the Chief Executive of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency. I have asked the Chief Executive to write to the hon. Member.
Letter from John Chisholm to Mr. Matthew Taylor, dated 6 April 2000:
I am replying to your parliamentary question about studies undertaken by the Chemical and Biological Defence (CBD) sector of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA).During the last four years, the types of studies carried out on human volunteers at Porton Down have fallen into two broad categories. Firstly, there are studies concerned with the evaluation of the physical and psychological burden imposed on service personnel by wearing various items of personal protective equipment, such as the NBC suit and the current in-service respirator, under various environmental conditions.Secondly, there are studies that evaluate the effects of various licensed drugs on military performance. These may be given to service personnel either as protection or treatments in the event of exposure to chemical or biological agents on the battlefield. The effects that are investigated in such studies would be trivial or go unnoticed in a civilian population but may be important in a military context because they could possibly degrade overall performance. An example of this type of study is the evaluation of the effects of antibiotics on the performance of those involved in tasks such as map reading.I hope the above is helpful.