London

Misfire? A rifle system designed by DERA, whose US links could be under threat.

Proposals for the partial privatization of one of Europe's largest research organizations, the UK Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA), have been criticized by a cross-party committee of the British Parliament.

There is concern that the move could undermine collaboration in defence research with the United States, whose government will only deal directly with other governments, and not with private organizations. US officials are said to be unhappy about the proposed privatization, pointing out that certain areas of development of military technologies would become out of bounds to DERA institutions.

DERA exists primarily to support the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), for example by running most of its non-nuclear research, technology and test and evaluation establishments. But the agency has increasingly been encouraged by the government to take on commercial work. The Treasury now wants DERA to become essentially a private organization, requiring it to become more financially competitive.

But the defence select committee of the House of Commons says it has found several areas in which the MoD's proposals for a public–private partnership (PPP) are “flawed or where significant issues remain to be resolved”. These include the difficulty of protecting collaboration with the United States.

“The collaboration between Britain and the United States is the closest in terms of defence technology. It goes back 40 years,” says Philip Gummett, a research policy analyst at the University of Manchester.

Some claim that the proposals would also mean that officials from DERA would no longer be able to take part in international governmental organizations and committees, such as those of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. This would raise the issue of who would provide scientific and technical input on behalf of the UK government at such meetings.

The Institute of Professionals, Managers and Specialists (IPMS), the labour union that represents most DERA employees, submitted a lengthy statement to the select committee arguing against privatization. The union's concerns are reflected in the committee's report. As well as DERA's relationship with the United States, the extent to which the MoD would lose its ‘intelligent customer’ facility was criticized.

At present, DERA provides most of the scientific and technical expertise used by the MoD to assess any equipment programme. Charles Harvey of IPMS says privatization could leave the MoD “bereft of expertise”. “In the taxpayer's interest, it is essential that there is intelligent customer capability in the MoD. Hiving off its expertise would not be a good idea. This is one of the features of the report that we particularly applaud.”

Another stumbling block is the political sensitivity of some of the research carried out by DERA — in particular by its Chemical and Biological Defence Sector at Porton Down — and whether this should be entrusted to a private company.

Widespread opposition to the Treasury-led proposals has already led the defence secretary, Geoffrey Hoon, to announce a second postponement of a decision on the matter last month. But continued pressure on UK departmental spending mean that the MoD will not be shelving PPP plans.

Hoon said the MoD would widen the scope of discussions to “address the concerns raised” in the report. He added: “We are committed to DERA PPP and are confident that we can achieve a solution which will strengthen DERA's ability to provide world-class scientific research while preserving our defence interests and maintaining our collaborative relationships.”

Options being considered include keeping a larger part of DERA within the MoD. Spending on defence research has fallen by 40 per cent over the past six years, and the committee says that the ministry remains committed to a continual downward course for research spending.

IPMS officials welcomed the conclusions of the select committee, saying that they echo the union's concerns. The MoD's two postponements of its plans for PPP shows its difficulty in implementing them, says Harvey. “The proposals should be redrafted at the least, but we would hope they are withdrawn.” The way forward, he says, is to develop the Defence Diversification Agency and to diversify DERA into more non- MoD related work.