DERA at Boscombe Down - position statement on 7th May 2001

THE FACTS

Boscombe Down government airfield is a very substantial asset. It is owned by the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency - an Agency of the Ministry of Defence. Its downland location includes seven scheduled ancient monuments. It has a 3,200 metre, double-width main runway in a 609 hectare site with a 25 kilometre perimeter fence. Inside are 440 buildings and structures including an anechoic chamber and a rolling deck (to simulate an aircraft carrier at sea).

Over 2000 people work here - 1200 of them for DERA, of whom one quarter are service personnel, mostly Royal Air Force. The remaining 800 work for various MOD 'lodger units' and some private firms such as Northrop Grumman - the US defence contractor which is in the top five in the world.

PRIVATISATION

Margaret Thatcher and John Major's Governments both decided not to privatise DERA on grounds of national security. Tony Blair's Labour Government has decided to go ahead. It will split the organisation, retaining one quarter of the workforce in what is now known as the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL). This includes the Porton Down Chemical and Biological Defence establishment. Three quarters of DERA, from July 1st this year, will become a Government-owned company (GoCo) with the Government as sole shareholder. The Government has so far spent some £400,000 on consultancy and other fees to call this GoCo, QuinetiQ (pronounced 'kinetic').

The Treasury requires the Go-Co to be floated on the London Markets as soon as possible. However, the international stock values for high-tech companies are currently very poor. I believe the Government plans not to sell off QuinetiQ until at least mid-2002. Why? Because in the Defence Contracts Journal published on May 3rd (on the internet), DSTL is advertising for bidders for facilities management services 'upon the separation of DERA into two separate businesses' which 'will arise with effect 1 August 2002'.

REGIONAL AIRPORT?

DERA told the Bourne Valley Environmental Protection Group, at a meeting which I attended on 26th April, that BDN will remain a government aerodrome, operating to military rules and standards, not to Civil Aviation Authority rules - so it could not operate ordinary commercial flights. BDN will continue to be operated by the RAF Director of Flying, with about 100 RAF people running the Air Traffic Control, radio communications etc. However, the new company, QuinetiQ, will be given a long-term lease with the right to buy. So there is no long-term guarantee that BDN will remain a military aerodrome.

JOBS

If BDN is to sustain the current level of employment, and if it is to look sufficiently attractive to prospective investors when QuinetiQ is floated, the airfield must persuade MOD that it needs continuity of MOD contract work. I have undertaken to pursue this with the new government if I am re-elected. I believe it is in the Governments' interest as well as BDNs' to ensure stability and continuity for the Empire Test Pilots School, the Aircraft Testing and Evaluation role and other current work. This will also increase the value to potential investors and thus give better value-for-money for the taxpayer. So what BDN needs is maximum utilisation and lower marginal overhead operating costs.

TANKER AIRCRAFT

That is why the management at BDN had no option but to bid for the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft project, against the current main operating base at Brize Norton (BZN). They genuinely need the business - and they also need to maintain their track-record as a centre of aeronautical engineering excellence. If they are not successful with FSTA they must look at other commercial opportunities whilst maintaining interdependence with other DSTL and QuinetiQ projects. For example, they must look at the possibility of winning work with helicopter repair and maintenance as well as air-cargo and air-taxi business (which they plan to be about 2 percent of their activity over 5 years). They will also make better use of their empty buildings and will seek to attract non-flying business.

PLANNING APPLICATIONS

There were those at DERA HQ at Farnborough who advised against using the special Government '18/84' planning procedure, which notifies a planning authority (Salisbury District Council) of its intention to develop, thus avoiding the normal democratic planning procedure. But they went ahead - and fell foul of local public opinion and of their own recently-introduced Human Rights Act under which the Government was already in Court for acting as judge and jury in its own planning applications.

If there was to be any hope of winning the FSTA contract DERA would have to have planning permission - so they re-submitted the application under normal procedures. Our District Councillors will consider this at the Northern Area Planning Committee of Salisbury DC, probably in June. I think it is fair to say that Councillors will be very torn. They don't want to see 'Brize at Boscombe' - but to say no might be interpreted as lack of support for the workforce ate BDN.

Salisbury District Councillors asked for, and have been given, additional information on the environmental impact of the project .

DERA management at BDN have said that if they lose the FSTA bid, the whole application would fall including the 300 houses, the hotels etc. They've also said that if they were to get just a bit of the FSTA project, not the whole main operating base, the application would be scaled down accordingly.
FSTA DECISIONS

The MOD issued an Invitation to Submit Outline Proposals (ISOP) in September 1999. Four consortia submitted replies in November 1999. Initial Gate Approval for the Project to enter a formal Assessment Phase was given and an Invitation to Negotiate was issued to the competing consortia on 21 December 2000. Since then the number of consortia has dropped to two. Responses to the ITN are due back at the MOD on 3 July 2001. A final Ministerial decision on the programme is anticipated for mid-2002 leading to a potential contract award in early 2003 and an In-Service Date between 2007 and 2009.

ROBERT KEY'S POSITION

Boscombe Down should not have been privatised and DERA should not have been split up - but the Labour Government has done it. Now we must make it work. I believe Boscombe Down should remain a Government military aerodrome. It should not become a regional civil airport and it would be wrong to make it a main operating base for tanker aircraft. If re-elected, I will put pressure on the new Government to commit to long-term MOD contracts at Boscombe Down. Amesbury should retain its aeronautical engineering skills base. Boscombe Down should become an Air Technology Park - part of the Salisbury Research Triangle.

Robert Key MP
7 May 2001