Veterans' Affairs

Mr. Robert Key (Salisbury) (Con): It is a great privilege and honour to represent more than 11,000 Ministry of Defence employees, half of whom are in Her Majesty's forces, and half civil servants, scientific civil servants or in support roles. Thousands of my constituents are veterans. By disposition, I am an optimist. After all, war represents a failure of diplomacy and politics.

Summer 1944 was a very important time for me. My parents had survived the blitz in Plymouth. My father was rector of Stoke Damerel, part of the dockyard community. My brother and sisters had survived night after night in the cellar while my father was out on air raid patrols in the dockyards. The summer was a time of some celebration, of which I am living proof, because I was born in April 1945, at 1 Penlee way, Stoke Damerel.

In 1947, we moved to Salisbury, a garrison city. I was brought up with the traditions of the military and military uniforms.

Yes, the military all wore uniforms in the street as a matter of course in those days as they went through Salisbury. Last Sunday we had our D-day service in Salisbury cathedral. Our Dean, the Very Rev. June Osborne, reminded us that although our minds were focused on Normandy, we should not forget what had happened on the eastern front and we should be remembering everyone who sought to liberate Europe, whether they were in Budapest or Brest. Sitting opposite me in the cathedral was the former Father of the House, my constituent the right hon. Sir Edward Heath. I should like to pay tribute to his wartime record and all that he achieved in those dark days. He had in his own right a distinguished career in the military.

We look forward to celebrating in my constituency on Sunday 11 July the annual Fovant Badges Drumhead service, at which we will recall the contribution of the former empire and Commonwealth forces in the two world wars of the previous century. We will see there more than 30 standards of the Royal British Legion and a substantial congregation will assemble on the lawn of the farm to look at the regimental badges carved in the chalk and sing our hearts out, particularly this year as we celebrate the 60th anniversary.

If anyone doubts the spirit of the young people in our armed services, I invite them to visit Amesbury town centre on a Saturday night. They will then be in no doubt of the mindset of our young people, who work hard and, by golly, play hard. Perhaps by contrast they could then visit the Winchester Army training establishment or the Army foundation college at Harrogate to see the quality of the young people who wish voluntarily to enter the finest army in the world. They would not be disappointed.

Yesterday morning, along with my hon. Friend the Member for New Forest, East (Dr. Lewis) and the current Father of the House, I attended the memorial to innocent victims at Westminster abbey for short prayers to commemorate all those who died in the crash of Chinook ZD576 on the Mull of Kintyre 10 years ago. Various comments have been made on that, which I shall not repeat, but I shall just say that I am grateful to the Prime Minister for agreeing to see some people who, like me, have been involved in the campaign for a long time. A point of law is involved in the case. In my judgment, it is not a matter of a technical assessment of what went wrong, because none of us will ever know. That is the whole point. The burden of proof required to condemn men to gross negligence-that there is no possible doubt whatever-is more rigorous than the burden required for murder. This is not a technical issue, but a matter of political judgment.

When Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister, I went to see her at No. 10, with several other hon. Members in a cross-party delegation, about blood infected with HIV and the way in which haemophiliacs were affected. We looked her in the eye and she looked back and said, "You're right. Morally, you're correct". So without any question of liability or admission of guilt, an ex gratia payment was made to found a fund to support people who were victims as a result. In the same way, I hope that we can now move on from what may have happened in the case of ZD576. I see this as a great opportunity for the Prime Minister to do his best to show that he is no less a Prime Minister than Margaret Thatcher was when she changed the minds of the Government, Secretaries of State and civil servants on that issue.

I welcome the Minister for veterans. It is a pleasure to work with him, as I do on many constituency issues. He is always welcome to visit my constituency, as are all Ministers in the Ministry of Defence, and I know that he and they do so regularly. I recall that it was when I was a serving member of the Defence Committee in 1996, and we produced a report on Gulf war syndrome, that we concluded that we needed a Minister for veterans' affairs. Having visited Washington, we concluded that we did not need a Department of veterans' affairs but that we did need a Minister to co-ordinate the MOD's response and do a bit of joined-up government. That recommendation was in the Conservative manifesto in 1997. Sadly we were not able to carry that out, but I am glad that the incoming Government saw the wisdom of that course of action.

The Veterans Agency has grown in stature very rapidly indeed, and I can save many minutes of my speech by simply referring Members to its excellent website, www.veteransagency.mod.uk, and by pointing out that it performs a wide range of services for veterans. But I would not want to forget what is done by other agencies, particularly the Army Families Federation, which makes a huge contribution, as do the Royal Naval and Royal Air Force family organisations and the Army welfare services themselves. All of them look after not just existing servicemen but veterans who need support.

Of course, we first and foremost think of the Royal British Legion in this connection. Last November, I attended my 21st Remembrance day ceremony, in Guildhall square, Salisbury, as its Member of Parliament. We in Salisbury are immensely proud of our Royal British Legion-the main branch is in Salisbury but we have other branches, including in Amesbury-which is a very active part of our community. But we should never for one moment think that the RBL is all about looking after the elderly, because that is not always the case. In fact, it looks after a great many people. Some 13 million people in the UK are eligible for its help: 5.5 million ex-service people and 7.5 million dependants. That is about 20 per cent. of the population.

Interestingly-this is not widely known-anyone can be a member of the Royal British Legion, ex-service or not. One need not be an RBL member to receive assistance, but one must be an ex-service person or a dependant. In fact, anyone who has been in the British armed forces for seven days or more is eligible for help. In only one year since the second world war-1968-has a British service person not been killed on active service, so the work of the RBL is ongoing. It will always be there for future generations, and for that we are deeply grateful.

I am also particularly grateful to the Soldiers, Sailors and Air Force Association, which does wonderful work in my constituency and throughout the country by supporting the regimental benevolent funds. Thank goodness we have a regimental system in this country; it is the envy of all other NATO countries. The regimental benevolent funds are not limitless, and SSAFA helps a great many people, including, of course, veterans and their dependants.

There is one particular issue that I want to deal with before I finish. In July 1999, Wiltshire constabulary began inquiries into allegations made by a former serviceman, who said that during his national service, he had taken part in research into finding a cure for the common cold at Porton Down. He subsequently said that the experiments and tests carried out on him had nothing to do with common cold research, and that those who conducted the experiments had assaulted him. He also alleged that another serviceman had been killed in an illegal experiment at Porton involving nerve gas, in 1953.

As a result of that complaint and of other allegations, Wiltshire constabulary initiated a major inquiry, Operation Antler, the purpose of which was to examine the issues associated with the service volunteer programme at Porton Down and experiments relating to the use of chemical and biological agents during the period 1939 to 1989. Some volunteers claimed to have suffered long-term illness or injury. More than 250 were interviewed and 25 cases were selected for development, with a view to ascertaining whether criminal offences had been committed. Of those, eight were selected to progress to the Crown Prosecution Service for consideration in respect of the offences of administering an unlawful substance, and of assault. More than 700 ex-service personnel and their relatives had made contact with the Wiltshire constabulary or had been contacted by the inquiry team. Although some claimed to have suffered illness or injury, others were shown to have experienced no adverse long-term side effects, and they made no claims.

Operation Antler came to a conclusion, and last summer the Government announced that they were not going to take any action. That has caused a great deal of consternation for many hundreds of veterans. Only this week has a lot more information been put on the public record, as a result of a parliamentary question that I tabled in January.

Although I received a letter from the Solicitor-General in March, explaining why it was taking a long time, the results were published on Monday this week. It is important to put the minds of many hundreds of veterans at rest by explaining briefly what had happened.

The testing of chemical agents at Porton Down goes back to the use of poisonous gas by the Germans in the first world war. The participation of servicemen in testing, in connection with the use of chemical agents, began on an organised basis back in the 1920s. Recent surveys have found that more than 20,000 servicemen were involved, of whom about 3,000 participated in studies involving nerve agents, 6,000 in studies involving mustard gas and several hundred in studies evaluating the effects of other incapacitants, mental or physical. The evidence gathered under Operation Antler provided considerable detail on these matters.

The Crown Prosecution Service has examined in general terms the evidence concerning the conduct, authorisation and supervision of tests carried out at Porton Down-from ministerial level downwards, through the internal and external supervisory committees, to the point of testing there. Contemporary knowledge was assessed in respect of the foreseeable risks to the health of servicemen. The CPS considered evidence about the information provided to servicemen prior to the tests. It also examined evidence on what was administered or done to the observers and on both the immediate effects and subsequent ill health. Modern expert evidence has assessed various aspects of the treatment of the servicemen at Porton Down by the standards applicable at the time, including medical ethics. The CPS also had access to formal interviews with surviving potential suspects.

The lawfulness arising in each of the selected episodes of testing reflected in the advice files is, it seems to me-though I am not a lawyer-a novel issue in the context of our domestic criminal law. It concerns the legal principles applicable to non-therapeutic medical experimentation on human subjects, and, in particular, the principles bearing on the issue of consent.

The inquiry has shown that, although there was a substantial body of evidence suggesting that military station notices did refer to common cold research at Porton Down, no such notices have ever been found. There has been much confusion about that. There was a common cold research institute outside Salisbury-at Harnwood hospital-and it also ran a volunteer programme, which was a confusing factor.

There is no clear evidence that the staff at Porton Down ever sought to misrepresent the testing that was carried out there. Whatever reason the volunteers had for attending Porton Down, once there, they were told in very clear terms that the research was connected with chemical and biological warfare and defence. That means warfare prior to the mid-1950s and defence afterwards. We have done no offensive work on chemical and biological warfare in this country since the mid-1950s: it has all been defensive.

The obvious criminal offences against which to evaluate the evidence were administering a noxious thing, contrary to section 24 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 and assault occasioning actual bodily harm, contrary to section 47 of the same Act. In addition, there is the general common law rule that it is not in the public interest that a person should wound or cause actual bodily harm to another "for no good reason". Accordingly, such conduct is unlawful, regardless of the consent of the injured person. Non-therapeutic research on human subjects carried out in accordance with contemporary standards of reasonable medical practice is highly unlikely to be regarded by any criminal court as other than properly conducted.

The point that I am getting to is that there has to be sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of proving to a criminal standard that specific testing at Porton Down was a substantial cause of any subsequent ill health suffered by an observer. Evidence of subsequent ill health is necessary before assessing the prospects of success in proving a criminal charge. There is no evidence: that is the final word of the Crown Prosecution Service.

Having considered all the evidence, the CPS concluded that it did not provide a realistic prospect of conviction. The weight of the evidence revealed that the testing had been carried out in the public interest, and in accordance with the accepted professional standards of the day. Moreover, the observers volunteered for the nature of the act, and there is no evidence to suggest that the testing caused any subsequent ill health.

There were some problems to do with the quality of the evidence, and with evidence that had gone missing in the long period since the events took place. However, the CPS concluded that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute any person for any criminal offence. That decision was taken after the most thorough and careful consideration of the evidence.

We must start a new chapter at Porton Down. For five years, my constituents at what is now the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory there have gone to work every day knowing that 20 police officers from the Wiltshire constabulary, and a number of Minister of Defence police officers, were undertaking criminal investigations into work carried out by my constituents' predecessors. For five years, retired scientists have feared the knock on the door from police calling to interrogate and, possibly, arrest them. For many years, retired civil servants-and volunteers and veterans-have been telephoned and doorstepped by journalists coming hotfoot from the old Public Records Office at Kew as official documents came to be released under the 30-year rule. The names of the scientists who participated in trials many years ago have, of course, been released.

There are more than 1,000 dedicated employees at DSTL Porton Down, and another 800 at the Health Protection Agency next door. Many are world-class scientists. I visited the US last year with the Select Committee on Science and Technology, as part of our inquiry into the scientific response to terrorism. Wherever we went-from the White House, to the centres for disease control in Atlanta or the Lawrence Livermore laboratories in California-we learned of the high regard in which the scientists at Porton Down were held.

They are all dedicated professionals, whether they be scientists, civil servants or support staff. They are dedicated to saving life. They work to save the lives of our service men and women. Increasingly, they are conducting research into nervous disorders, and into saving the lives of people suffering from Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. I salute them, just as I salute our proud and noble veterans.