Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Fort Halstead Site)

Friday 17th June 2011 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Peter Luff)]

The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) has recently completed a review of the operations at its Fort Halstead site. As a result of this review, DSTL has proposed that these operations should be relocated to its other two sites—Portsdown West and Porton Down—and that the Fort Halstead site should be closed.

I have approved the proposed relocation programme, which will take around five years. DSTL’s current activities at Fort Halstead include support to operations in Afghanistan and to counter-terrorism activity in the UK. By bringing together DSTL’s facilities and capabilities, the programme will result in more robust and resilient scientific support to national defence and security and will offer better value to the taxpayer.