A senior whistleblower has warned that a major restructuring of the government’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) at Porton Down is damaging morale and disrupting critical work that supports national security. The insider told the Guardian that the changes have left the organisation in a paralysing limbo, with hundreds of jobs being “deleted” and staff required to reapply for positions.
The whistleblower said that morale and productivity have been severely affected, with DSTL’s latest internal staff survey showing an engagement index at a historic low of 43%, compared with 57% for the wider National Armaments Director group and 64% for the civil service. A separate safety survey placed DSTL in the bottom 1% of benchmarked organisations for staff feeling they had the “resources to work safely”.
The whistleblower added: “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 … We have been unable to do real science at times.” Recruitment controls imposed in November have worsened the situation, they said.
The Ministry of Defence did not dispute that morale had been affected but stressed that no redundancies had resulted from the job deletions. A spokesperson said: “DSTL … 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 … Our people remain the bedrock of DSTL and their dedication has ensured that our performance this year is better than last year.”
Trade union sources and leaked staff survey data supported the whistleblower’s concerns. The shake-up is part of wider defence reform in Whitehall, with government sources saying DSTL already had a strong safety record and that churn at the organisation was low.
