Porton Down shake-up harming critical national security science, whistleblower warns

A shake-up of the government’s defence science powerhouse at Porton Down has severely damaged morale and harmed work on critical science that supports national security, a senior whistleblower has told The Guardian.The whistleblower said they were raising concerns in the public interest that the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), based largely at Porton Down in Wiltshire, had been left in a paralysing limbo because of the changes.They said staff morale and productivity had been affected by a programme to “delete” hundreds of jobs and require people to reapply for positions, hampering scientific research and potentially jeopardising safety.The organisation, which is an arm’s-length body of the Ministry of Defence, is responsible for cutting-edge science and technology that aids the military and national security, working on incidents such as the Salisbury poisoning by Russian agents and countering the Covid pandemic. It has about 4,800 staff members.The Ministry of Defence did not dispute that morale has been affected by its organisational changes but stressed that there have been no redundancies as a result of the job “deletions”.Quick GuideContact us about this storyShowThe best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know.If you have something to share on this subject, you can contact us confidentially using the following methods.Secure Messaging in The Guardian appThe Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said.If you don't already have The Guardian app, download it (iOS/Android) and go to the menu. Select ‘Secure Messaging’. 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Illustration: Guardian Design / Rich CousinsThe whistleblower’s claims that staff have been unsettled by the DSTL shake-up were backed by trade union sources and leaked data from the organisation’s staff surveys.The most recent staff survey released internally by DSTL showed its “engagement index” was at a historic low of 43%, compared with 57% for the National Armaments Director group and 64% for the civil service as a whole.In addition, a recent staff safety survey devised by the Health and Safety Executive put DSTL at the bottom 1% of benchmarked organisations across the civil service and private sector in terms of whether staff felt they had the “resources to work safely”.The whistleblower said the shake-up has placed the whole organisation in limbo, worsened by recruitment controls put in place from 3 November. They said: “They are treating us like a bunch of replaceable people in grey suits when we are a diverse team of world-leading science experts passionate about keeping our country safe. The losses will take a decade to recover from.“It has been nine months of DSTL looking at its own navel and worrying about its own structure. We have been unable to do real science at times. There is real stuff that we want to be achieving but the organisation is concerned about the shape of itself, it has lost its priority of science and technology to support our country.“Everyone is distracted at a top level by the changes and we have been in limbo for way more than six months which is an enormous amount of time. That has led to people becoming dissatisfied and leaving. Many people who aren’t leaving are demotivated and unable to do their jobs as well.”The whistleblower said the drive for change has come from the chief executive, Paul Hollinshead, and he has in recent months told staff they need to improve health and safety otherwise they could lose their licence to operate.The DSTL shake-up is part of a wider reform of defence in Whitehall that has been called the biggest in 50 years. At DSTL, part of the aim was to improve its safety record, with government sources saying it was already among the top performing defence organisations for safety with a very low accident rate.The Whitehall sources also disputed the idea that the changes have caused a degradation in capabilities and said that churn at the organisation was low.A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “There have been no redundancies or forced staff exits as a result of this work.“DSTL, now part of the National Armaments Director group as we deliver on defence reform, is on track to meet its key requirements for defence and security this year such as delivering the latest successful DragonFire laser trial and the biggest ever UK AI and autonomous systems trials.“Through the largest reforms to defence in more than 50 years, we are strengthening our ability to anticipate and respond to evolving threats, including increasing our safety standard.“Our people remain the bedrock of DSTL and their dedication has ensured that our performance this year is better than last year.”