Editing Porton Down

{{Short description|Military science park in Wiltshire, England}}
{{EngvarB|date=October 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2023}}
{{Infobox business park
| name              = Porton Down
| image             = Who left the gate open^ - geograph.org.uk - 1706982.jpg
| image_upright     =
| alt               =
| caption           = Entrance to secure facilities at Porton Down
| map_type          = Wiltshire
| relief            =
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| location          = Northeast of the village of [[Porton (village)|Porton]] near [[Salisbury]], in [[Wiltshire]], England
| address           =
| coordinates       = {{coord|51.131|-1.704|type:city(500)_region:GB-WIL|display=title,inline}}
| opening_date      = March 1916
| closing_date      =
| developer         =
| construction_cost =
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| size              = {{cvt|7000|acre}}
| parking           =
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}}
'''Porton Down''' is a science and defence technology campus in [[Wiltshire]], England, just north-east of the village of [[Porton]], near [[Salisbury]]. It is home to two [[Government of the United Kingdom|British government]] facilities: a site of the [[Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Defence]]'s [[Defence Science and Technology Laboratory]] – known for over 100 years as one of the UK's most secretive and controversial [[Military science|military research]] facilities, occupying {{cvt|7000|acre}}<ref name=mosley>{{Cite news |author=Michael Mosley|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36606510 |publisher=[[BBC News]] |title=Inside Britain's secret weapons research facility |date=28 June 2016}}</ref> – and a site of the [[UK Health Security Agency]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Centres - UK Health Security Agency |url=https://www.rsph.org.uk/qualifications/centres/public-health-england-emergency-response-department.html |website=rsph.org.uk |publisher=Royal Society for Public Health |access-date=7 July 2022}}</ref> Since 2018, part of the campus has housed Porton Science Park, which is owned and operated by [[Wiltshire Council]] and has private sector companies in the health, life science and defence and security sectors.
{{TOC limit}}

==Location==
Porton Down is just north-east of the village of [[Porton]], near [[Salisbury]], in [[Wiltshire]], England. To the north-west lies the [[MoD Boscombe Down]] airfield operated by [[Qinetiq]]. On some maps, the land surrounding the complex is identified as a "Danger Area".<ref>{{cite web|title=Ordnance Survey map number '184' of the 'Landranger' series of maps|url= http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk |website=Online Ordnance Survey }}</ref>

==History of government use==
{{More citations needed section|date=June 2013}}
[[File:2inchMortarsPortonDown.jpg|thumb|right|{{center|[[2 inch Medium Mortar|2-inch mortar]] trials, 1917}}]]
Porton Down opened in 1916 as the '''War Department Experimental Station''', shortly thereafter renamed the '''Royal Engineers Experimental Station''', for testing chemical weapons in response to German use of this means of war in 1915.  The laboratory's remit was to conduct research and development regarding chemical weapons agents used by the British armed forces in the First World War, such as [[chlorine]], [[mustard gas]], and [[phosgene]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14396|title=War Office, Ministry of Supply, Ministry of Defence : Chemical Defence Experimental Establishment, later Chemical and Biological Defence Establishment, Porton: Reports and Technical Papers|format=5136 files and volumes |publisher=The National Archives|date=1918–1993|access-date=17 June 2017}}</ref>

Work at Porton started in March 1916. At the time, only a few cottages and farm buildings were scattered on the downs at Porton and [[Idmiston]]. By May 1917, the focus for anti-gas defence and respirator development had moved from London to Porton Down, and by 1918, the original two huts had become a large hutted camp with 50 officers and 1,100 other ranks. After the [[Armistice]] in 1918, Porton Down was reduced to a skeleton staff.<ref name="carter">{{cite book|title=Chemical and Biological Defence at Porton Down 1916–2000|last=Carter|first=G B|date=2000|location=London|publisher=The Stationery Office|pages=126–127|isbn=0-11-772933-7}}</ref>

=== Post First World War ===
<!--  Commented out because image was deleted: [[File:PortonOfficialHistory.JPG|thumb|200px|'[[Chemical and Biological Defence at Porton Down, 1916–2000]]' by [[G.B. Carter]], Porton Down's official historian.]] -->
In 1919, the War Office set up the Holland Committee to consider the future of chemical warfare and defence. By 1920, the Cabinet agreed to the committee's recommendation that work would continue at Porton Down. From that date a slow permanent building programme began, coupled with the gradual recruitment of civilian scientists. By 1922, there were 380 servicemen, 23 scientific and technical civil servants, and 25 "civilian subordinates". In 1923 the newly formed [[Silver Star Motor Services]] started a bus service to link Salisbury and Porton Down. <ref>{{Cite book |last=Grace |first=Terry |title=Remembering Silver Star |publisher=Catkin Books |year=2021 |isbn=9781527295186 |pages=3}}</ref> By 1925, the civilian staff had doubled.<ref name="carter" />

By 1926, the chemical defence aspects of Air Raid Precautions (ARP) for the civilian population was added to the Station's responsibilities. In 1929 the Royal Engineers Experimental Station became the '''Chemical Warfare Experimental Station''' ('''CWES''') (1929–1930), and in 1930 the '''Chemical Defence Experimental Station''' ('''CDES''') (1930–1948).<ref name="carter" /> In 1930, Britain ratified the 1925 [[Geneva Protocol]] with reservations, which permitted the use of chemical warfare agents only in retaliation. By 1938, the international situation was such that the Cabinet authorised offensive chemical warfare research and development and the production of war reserve stocks of chemical warfare agents by the chemical industry.<ref name="carter" /> This included conducting [[chemical warfare]] trials, known as the [[Rawalpindi experiments]], on servicemen in the [[British Indian Army]] to test the effects of [[mustard gas]].<ref>{{Cite web|date=2007-09-01|title=Military scientists tested mustard gas on Indians|url=http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/sep/01/india.military|access-date=2020-10-19|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref>

=== Second World War ===
<!-- Unsourced image removed: [[File:PortonDownOrdnanceSurveyMap.JPG|thumb|200px|An Ordnance Survey map of 'Dstl, Porton Down' and its surrounding 'Danger Areas' as of 12 April 2007. Note that 'Danger Areas' are spotted all over [[Salisbury Plain]] from Porton Down outwards. For further details of these please see Ordnance Survey map number '184' of the 'Landranger' series of maps. A smaller view of this is available online<ref>http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk Online Ordnance Survey small map</ref>]] -->

During the Second World War, research at CDES concentrated on chemical weapons such as [[nitrogen mustard]]. As [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] armies penetrated Germany, they discovered operational stockpiles of munitions and weapons that contained new chemical warfare agents, including highly toxic organophosphorous [[nerve agent]]s such as [[sarin]], unknown to Britain and the Allies at the time.<ref name="carter" />

To examine biological weapons, a highly secret separate department, called the '''Biology Department, Porton''' ('''BDP'''), was established within CDES in 1940, under veteran microbiologist [[Paul Fildes]]. Its focus included [[anthrax]] and [[botulinum toxin]], and in 1942 it infamously carried out tests of an anthrax bio-weapon at [[Gruinard Island]]. In 1946, it was renamed the '''Microbiological Research Department''' ('''MRD''') and, in 1957, the '''Microbiological Research Establishment''' ('''MRE''').

The [[Common Cold Unit]] (CCU) was sometimes confused with the MRE, with which it occasionally collaborated but was not officially connected. The CCU was at Harvard Hospital, Harnham Down, on the west side of [[Salisbury]].<ref name="carter" />

=== Post-war period ===

When the Second World War ended, the advanced state of German technology regarding organophosphorus nerve agents such as [[Tabun (nerve agent)|tabun]], [[sarin]] and [[soman]], had surprised the Allies, who were eager to capitalise on it. Subsequent research took the newly discovered German nerve agents as a starting point, and eventually [[VX (nerve agent)|VX]] nerve agent was developed at Porton Down in 1952.<ref name="carter" />

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, research and development at Porton Down was aimed at providing Britain with the means to arm itself with a modern nerve agent-based capability and to develop specific means of defence against these agents. In the end these aims came to nothing on the offensive side because of the decision to abandon any sort of British chemical warfare capability in favour of nuclear weapons. On the defensive side there were years of difficult work to develop the means of prophylaxis, therapy, rapid detection and identification, decontamination, and more effective protection of the body against nerve agents, capable of exerting effects through the skin, the eyes and respiratory tract.<ref name="carter" />

Tests were carried out on servicemen to determine the effects of nerve agents on human subjects, with one recorded death due to a nerve gas experiment. There have been persistent allegations of unethical [[human experimentation]] at Porton Down, such as those relating to the death of Leading Aircraftman [[Ronald Maddison]], aged 20, in 1953. Maddison was taking part in sarin nerve agent toxicity tests; sarin was dripped onto his arm and he died shortly afterwards.

In the 1950s, the station, now renamed the '''Chemical Defence Experimental Establishment''' ('''CDEE'''), became involved with the development of [[CS gas|CS]], a riot-control agent, and took an increasing role in trauma and [[wound ballistics]] work. Both these facets of Porton Down's work had become more important because of the unrest and increasing violence in Northern Ireland.<ref name="carter" />

On 1 August 1962, Geoffrey Bacon, a scientist at the Microbiological Research Establishment, died from an accidental infection of the plague bacterium ''[[Yersinia pestis]]''. In the same month an [[autoclave]] exploded, shattering two windows. Both incidents generated considerable media coverage at the time.<ref name="carter" />

In 1970, the senior establishment at Porton Down was renamed the '''Chemical Defence Establishment''' ('''CDE''') for the next 21 years. Preoccupation with defence against nerve agents continued, but in the 1970s and 1980s, the Establishment was also concerned with studying reported chemical warfare by Iraq against Iran and against its own [[Kurdish people|Kurdish]] population.<ref name="carter" />

Porton Down was the laboratory where initial samples of the [[Ebola]] virus were sent in 1976 during the first confirmed outbreak of the disease in Africa. The laboratory now contains samples of some of the world's most aggressive pathogens, including Ebola, anthrax and the plague, and is leading the UK's current research into viral inoculations.<ref>{{cite news|title=The front line of the UK's Ebola prevention efforts|publisher=BBC News|date=13 August 2014|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-28773174|access-date=18 September 2015}}</ref>

=== 21st century ===

Until 2001, the military installations based at Porton Down were part of the UK government's [[Defence Evaluation and Research Agency]] (DERA). DERA was to be split into two parts: [[QinetiQ]], initially a government-owned company; and, the [[Defence Science and Technology Laboratory]] (Dstl), created to incorporate the activities of DERA deemed unsuitable for the privatisation planned for QinetiQ; particularly the Porton Down site. 

In 2013, Dstl scientists tested samples from Syria for sarin, which is still manufactured there, to assess soldiers' equipment.<ref name="mosley" />

In April 2018, Porton Down was responsible for analysis of the substance used in the nearby [[Salisbury poisonings]], which was ultimately identified by Dstl as a [[Novichok]] nerve agent.<ref>{{Cite web|url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51722301|title = Salisbury poisoning: What did the attack mean for the UK and Russia?| date = 4 March 2020|publisher = BBC News}}</ref>

=== Site names ===

The location's government use has been split into two separately controlled locations since 1979: the original military establishment under the Ministry of Defence, and the site to the south under the Department of Health, which had been opened in 1951 for the Microbiological Research Establishment, then in 1979 transferred to the Ministry of Health to focus on public health research, with the Defence aspects returning to the then-titled Chemical Defence Establishment.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hammond|first1=P|last2=Carter|first2=G|title=From Biological Warfare to Healthcare: Porton Down, 1940–2000|date=2001|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK| isbn=978-0333753835| pages=280| edition=1st| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7rx7QgAACAAJ}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
! align="center" | Date
! colspan="2" align="center" |Ministry of Defence (and predecessors)
! align="center" | Department of Health
|-
| 1916 || War Department Experimental Station || rowspan="4" |  || rowspan="9" |
|-
| 1916–29 || Royal Engineers Experimental Station
|-
| 1929–30 || Chemical Warfare Experimental Station (CWES)
|-
| 1930–48 || rowspan="3" | Chemical Defence Experimental Station (CDES)
|-
| 1940–46 || Biology Department Porton (BDP)
|-
| 1946–48 || rowspan="2" | Microbiological Research Department (MRD)
|-
| 1948–57 || rowspan="2" | Chemical Defence Experimental Establishment (CDEE)
|-
| 1957–70 || rowspan="2" | Microbiological Research Establishment (MRE)
|-
| 1970–79 || rowspan="2" | Chemical Defence Establishment (CDE)
|-
| 1979–91 || rowspan="7" |  || rowspan="4" | Centre for Applied Microbiology & Research (CAMR)
|-
| 1991–95 || Chemical & Biological Defence Establishment (CBDE)
|-
| 1995–2001 || Chemical & Biological Defence Sector of DERA (CBD)
|-
| 2001–04 || rowspan="4" | (one site of) [[Defence Science and Technology Laboratory]] (Dstl)
|-
| 2004–13 || (one site of) [[Health Protection Agency]]
|-
| 2013–2021 || (one site of) [[Public Health England]] (PHE)
|-
| 2021–present || (one site of) [[UK Health Security Agency]] (UKHSA)
|}

=== Associated locations ===

==== Sutton Oak, Merseyside ====
A factory in Sutton Oak, [[St Helens, Merseyside|St Helens]] was requisitioned in 1917 by the War Department, renamed HM Factory, Sutton Oak and started producing the chemical warfare agent [[Diphenylchlorarsine|diphenyl chloroarsine]]. The site switched to producing [[Adamsite]] in 1922. In 1923 the War Office halted the requisition and purchased the site, renaming it the War Office Research Establishment, a.k.a. Chemical Warfare Research Establishment, and later the Chemical Defence Research Establishment Sutton Oak. During the 1920s, the site switched to producing [[Mustard Gas|mustard gas]] products, starting with the HS variant and adding the HT variant in the 1930s, and also filling armaments. After WW2, the site also produced the nerve agent [[sarin]] for experimental purposes. The site closed in 1957, with much of the work transferring to Chemical Defence Establishment Nancekuke.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.suttonbeauty.org.uk/suttonhistory/poisongas/|website=suttonbeauty.org| title=Magnum Poison Gas Works|access-date=29 June 2016}}</ref>

==== RRH Portreath, Cornwall ====
This Royal Air Force site, built in 1940, was renamed [[CDE Nancekuke|Chemical Defence Establishment Nancekuke]] in July 1949. Manufacture of sarin in a pilot production facility commenced there in the early 1950s, producing about 20 tons from 1954 until 1956.  It was intended as a stockpile and production facility for the UK's chemical defences during the [[Cold War]], focussed on nerve agents, including small amounts of [[VX (nerve agent)|VX]] intended mainly for laboratory test purposes and to validate plant designs and optimise chemical processes for potential mass-production; full-scale production of VX agent never took place. In the late 1950s, the chemical weapons production plant was mothballed, but was maintained through the 1960s and 1970s in a state whereby production could easily re-commence if required.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mod.uk:80/DefenceInternet/AboutDefence/WhatWeDo/DefenceEstateandEnvironment/Nancekuke/|title=Nancekuke Remediation Project|publisher=Ministry of Defence (Archived by The National Archives)|archive-url=http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20101208174527/http://www.mod.uk:80/DefenceInternet/AboutDefence/WhatWeDo/DefenceEstateandEnvironment/Nancekuke/|archive-date=8 December 2010|url-status=dead|access-date=25 April 2012}}</ref>

== Non-government use ==
A few small scientific start-ups were allowed to use buildings on the Porton Down campus from the mid-1990s. Tetricus Science Park<ref name="tetricus">{{cite web |date= |title=Tetricus Science Park |url=http://www.ukspa.org.uk/members/tsp |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170818005402/http://www.ukspa.org.uk/members/tsp |archive-date=18 August 2017 |access-date=17 August 2017 |website=The United Kingdom Science Park Association}} </ref> has housed companies including and [[GW Pharmaceuticals]].<ref name=tetricus/>

In 2014, an expansion plan was predicted to create 2,000 jobs.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-29534463|title=Science park in Wiltshire wins £2m in council funding|date=8 October 2014|publisher=BBC News: Wiltshire|access-date=22 April 2017|language=en-GB}}</ref> Creation of Porton Science Park started in 2016, with £9.5m in funding from [[Wiltshire Council]], the Swindon and Wiltshire [[Local enterprise partnership|Local Enterprise Partnership]] and the [[European Regional Development Fund]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/news/articles/work-begins-on-multi-million-pound-science-park-for-wiltshire|title=Work begins on multi-million pound science park for Wiltshire|date=12 December 2016|website=Wiltshire Council|language=en|access-date=22 April 2017}}</ref> The first building opened in 2018,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Science Park Labs and Office Space for Rent in Wiltshire |url=https://www.portonsciencepark.com/ |access-date=2023-06-12 |website=Porton Science Park |language=en-US}}</ref> with [[Ploughshare Innovations]], Dstl's technology transfer company, among the tenants.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Porton Science Park attracts Ploughshare Innovations |url=https://www.ukspa.org.uk/porton-science-park-attracts-ploughshare-innovations/ |access-date=2023-06-12 |website=UK Science Park Association |language=en-US}}</ref> Further expansion began in 2022.<ref>{{Cite web |date=11 February 2022 |title=New £9.9 million Collaborative Innovation Centre begins to take shape |url=https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/news/new-collaborative-Innovation-centre-begins-to-take-shape |access-date=2023-06-12 |website=Wiltshire Council |language=en}}</ref>

==Areas of concern==

=== Trials ===

==== Open air ====
In 1942, [[Gruinard Island]] was dangerously contaminated with [[anthrax]] after a cloud of anthrax spores was released over the island during a trial. In 1981, a team of activists landed on the island and collected soil samples, a bag of which was left at the door at Porton Down. Testing showed that it still contained anthrax spores and in 1986 the Government felt obliged to take necessary steps to successfully decontaminate the island.

Between 1963 and 1975 the MRE carried out [[Dorset Biological Warfare Experiments|trials in Lyme Bay]] in which live bacteria were sprayed from a ship to be carried ashore by the wind to simulate an anthrax attack. The bacteria sprayed were ''[[Bacillus globigii]]'' and ''[[Escherichia coli]]''; these were originally considered to be less dangerous than other bacterial strains, but it was later admitted that the bacteria could adversely affect some vulnerable people. The town of [[Weymouth, Dorset|Weymouth]] lay downwind of the spraying. When the trials became public knowledge in the late 1990s, [[Dorset County Council]], [[Weymouth and Portland Borough Council]] and [[Purbeck District Council]] demanded a [[public inquiry]] to investigate the experiments. The Government refused a Public Inquiry but instead commissioned Professor Brian Spratt, to conduct an Independent Review of the possible adverse health effects. He concluded that individuals with certain chronic conditions may have been affected.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nr23.net/govt/spray_dorset.htm|title=The Dorset Biological Warfare Experiments 1963-75|access-date= 17 June 2017}}</ref><ref name=independent-how-british-government-subjected-thousands-people-chemical-and-biological-warfare-trials-during-cold-war>{{Cite news|title=How the British Government subjected thousands of people to chemical and biological warfare trials during Cold War|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/how-british-government-subjected-thousands-people-chemical-and-biological-warfare-trials-during-cold-war-10376411.html|last=Keys|first=David|date=9 July 2015|access-date=24 August 2021|work=[[The Independent]]|location=London}}</ref>

In 1954 the British Government sent biological warfare scientists to the Bahamas to release [[Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus]]es near an uninhabited island.<ref name=independent-how-british-government-subjected-thousands-people-chemical-and-biological-warfare-trials-during-cold-war />

Other research showed that, in the Obanaghoro region of southern [[Nigeria]], four British scientific missions dispersed, and assessed the effect of, experimental nerve gases over a fifteen-month period. Historians were unable to determine who did the extremely hazardous work of "hand-charging" weapons containing the nerve agents, while the effects on the local population and the extent of soil contamination are also unknown.<ref name=independent-how-british-government-subjected-thousands-people-chemical-and-biological-warfare-trials-during-cold-war />

==== Human trials ====
Porton Down has been involved in human testing at various points throughout the Ministry of Defence's use of the site. Up to 20,000 people took part in various trials from 1949 up to 1989:<ref name=lsd/>
From 1999 until 2006, it was investigated under [[Operation Antler (Porton Down investigation)|Operation Antler]]. In 2002 a first inquest and<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2488473.stm Nerve gas inquest to be re-opened] BBC News report, 18 November 2002</ref> in May 2004, a second inquest into the death of [[Ronald Maddison]] during testing of the nerve agent [[sarin]] commenced after his relatives and their supporters had lobbied for many years, which found his death to have been unlawful.<ref name="autogenerated1">{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/4013767.stm|title=Nerve gas death was 'unlawful' |date=15 November 2004|publisher=[[BBC News]]}}</ref> The Ministry of Defence challenged the verdict<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/wiltshire/4459217.stm|title=MoD 'can challenge Porton case'|date=19 April 2005|publisher=[[BBC News]]}}</ref> which was upheld and the government settled the case in 2006.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4709526.stm|title=MoD agrees sarin case settlement|date=13 February 2006|publisher=[[BBC News]]}}</ref> In 2006, 500 veterans claimed they suffered from the experiments.<ref>David Shukman [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/5018084.stm MOD pays out over nerve gas death] BBC News, 25 May 2006</ref>

In February 2006, three ex-servicemen were awarded compensation in an out-of-court settlement after they had claimed they were given [[LSD]] without their consent during the 1950s.<ref name=lsd>{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4745748.stm|title=MI6 payouts over secret LSD tests|date=24 February 2006|publisher=BBC News}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/feb/24/military.past|title=MI6 pays out over secret LSD mind control tests|last=Evans|first=Rob|date=24 February 2006|work=The Guardian}}</ref>
In 2008, the MoD paid 360 veterans of the tests £3m without admitting liability.<ref name=mosley/>

=== Secrecy ===
Most of the work carried out at Porton Down has to date remained secret. [[Bruce George]], Member of Parliament and Chairman of the [[Defence Select Committee]], told [[BBC News]] on 20 August 1999 that:
<blockquote>I would not say that the Defence Committee is micro-managing either DERA or Porton Down. We visit it, but, with eleven members of Parliament and five staff covering a labyrinthine department like the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces, it would be quite erroneous of me and misleading for me to say that we know everything that's going on in Porton Down. It's too big for us to know, and secondly, there are many things happening there that I'm not even certain Ministers are fully aware of, let alone Parliamentarians.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/425689.stm |publisher=[[BBC News]] |title=Chemical base 'too big', says MP |date=20 August 1999}}</ref></blockquote>

===Use of animals===
Dstl's Porton Down site conducts animal testing. The "three Rs" of "reduce" (the number of animals used), "refine" (animal procedures) and "replace" (animal tests with non-animal tests) are used as the basic code of practice.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm100914/text/100914w0001.htm|title=House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 14 Sep 2010 (pt 0001)}}</ref> There has been a decrease in animal experimentation in recent years.<ref name="publications.parliament.uk">{{cite web|url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmhansrd/cm100323/text/100323w0002.htm|title=House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 23 Mar 2010 (pt 0002)}}</ref> Dstl complies with all UK legislation relating to animals.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmhansrd/cm100324/text/100324w0001.htm|title=House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 24 Mar 2010 (pt 0001)}}</ref> Animals used include [[mouse|mice]], [[guinea pig]]s, [[rat]]s, pigs, [[ferret]]s, sheep, and non-human [[primate]]s (believed to be marmosets and [[rhesus macaque]]). Publicly released figures are detailed below:

{| class="wikitable"
|+
! colspan="11" |Animals used at Porton Down by DERA (1997–2001) / Dstl (2001–2015)
!
|-
!Year
!1997
!1998
!1999
!2000
!2001
!2002
!2003
!2004
!2005
!2006
!2007
|-
!Number
|10956<ref name="Animal1">{{Cite web | title = House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 4 Jun 2003 (pt 14) | last1 = (Hansard) | first1 = Department of the Official Report | last2 = Commons | first2 = House of | last3 = Westminster | work = publications.parliament.uk | date = 4 June 2003 | access-date = 2017-12-21 | url = https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmhansrd/vo030604/text/30604w14.htm#30604w14.html_spnew2 }}</ref>
|11091<ref name="Animal1" />
|11501<ref name="Animal1" />
|11985<ref name="Animal2">{{Cite web | title = House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 08 May 2006 (pt 0007) | last1 = (Hansard) | first1 = Department of the Official Report | last2 = Commons | first2 = House of | last3 = Westminster | work = publications.parliament.uk | date = 8 May 2006 | access-date = 2017-12-21 | url = https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/vo060508/text/60508w0007.htm#06050849002101 }}</ref>
|12955<ref name="Animal2" />
|15940<ref name="Animal2" />
|13899<ref name="Animal2" />
|15728<ref name="Animal2" />
|21118<ref name="Animal2" />
|17041<ref name="Animal3">{{Cite web | title = House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 29 Jan 2013 (pt 0002) | last1 = (Hansard) | first1 = Department of the Official Report | last2 = Commons | first2 = House of | last3 = Westminster | work = publications.parliament.uk | date = 29 January 2013 | access-date = 2017-12-21 | url = https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmhansrd/cm130129/text/130129w0002.htm#1301303001954 }}</ref>
|18255<ref name="Animal3" />
|-
!Year
!2008
!2009
!2010
!2011
!2012
!2013
!2014
!2015
!2016
!2017
!
|-
!Number
|12373<ref name="Animal3" />
|8452<ref name="Animal3" />
|9438<ref name="Animal4">{{Cite web|url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmhansrd/cm140722/text/140722w0001.htm#1407228100057|title=House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 22 July 2014 (pt 0001)|last1=(Hansard)|first1=Department of the Official Report|last2=Commons|first2=House of|date=22 July 2014|work=publications.parliament.uk|access-date=2017-12-21|last3=Westminster}}</ref>
|9722<ref name="Animal4" />
|8830<ref name="Animal4" />
|6461<ref name="Animal4" />
|4124<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/587327/Ministry-of-Defence-animal-testing-EBOLA-and-PLAGUE-Porton-Down|title=Revealed: Defence chiefs' animal testing shame as thousands suffer with Ebola and Plague|last=Barnett|first=Helen|date=2015-06-27|work=Daily Express|access-date=2017-12-21}}</ref>
|3249<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2016-07-20/43677/|title=Porton Down: Animal Experiments:Written question – 43677|date=4 June 2014|work=UK Parliament|access-date=2017-12-21}}</ref>
|2745<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/627157/2017-04492.pdf|title=FOI: Request number of animals used in research in Defence Science and Technology Laboratory in 2016 and copies of minutes of Internal Review Committee meetings|website=UK Government}}</ref>
|3865<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/704615/2018-04339.pdf|title=FOI: Number of animals used in Defence Science and Technology Laboratory research for 2017|website=UK Government}}</ref>
|
|}

Different departments at Porton Down use animal experiments in different ways. Dstl's Biomedical Sciences department is involved with drug evaluation and efficacy testing (toxicology, pharmacology, physiology, behavioural science, human science), trauma and surgery studies, and animal breeding. The Physical Sciences department also uses animals in its "Armour Physics" research.

Like other aspects of research at Porton Down, precise details of animal experiments are generally kept secret. Media reports have suggested they include exposing monkeys to [[anthrax]], draining the blood of pigs and injecting them with ''[[Escherichia coli|E. coli]]'' bacteria, and exposing animals to a variety of lethal, toxic nerve agents. Different animals are used for very different purposes. According to a 2002 report from the Animal Welfare Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Defence, mice are used mainly to research "the development of vaccines and treatments for microbial and viral infections", while pigs are used to "develop [[personal protective equipment]] to protect against blast injury to the thorax".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/F4AAE7BE-9D64-4FB5-A41F-481807F4DB21/0/awac6threport.pdf |title=Sixth Report of the Animal Welfare Advistory Committee|date=February 2002 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060503133310/http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/F4AAE7BE-9D64-4FB5-A41F-481807F4DB21/0/awac6threport.pdf |archive-date=3 May 2006 |access-date=1 March 2016}}</ref>

== In popular culture ==
{{in popular culture|date=February 2019}}

=== Novels ===
An institute similar to Porton Down, the Mordon Microbiological Research Establishment, features in the 1962 novel [[The Satan Bug (novel)|''The Satan Bug'']] by [[Alistair MacLean]]. 

In [[Len Deighton]]'s [[Harry Palmer]] novels, Porton Down features in ''[[Billion Dollar Brain]]'' as a point of material for biowarfare espionage.

Porton Down features in the 1977 novel [[The Enemy (Bagley novel)|''The Enemy'']] by [[Desmond Bagley]], the 2010 mystery novel ''Before the Poison'' by [[Peter Robinson (novelist)|Peter Robinson]], and the 2022 novel ''Tick Tock'' by [[Simon Mayo]].

=== Movies ===
Porton Down is featured in the 2022 psychological horror film ''The Sleep Experiment'' directed by [[John Farrelly (director)|John Farrelly]]. Two detectives begin an investigation into a disastrous secret military experiment where five prisoners were kept awake for thirty days in the facility.

===Television===
Porton Down and activities there during the 1940s and early 1950s were a significant plot point in Episodes One and Two of the second season of [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]]'s mystery series ''[[The Bletchley Circle]]''. Experiments conducted at Porton Down also appear in the BBC detective drama ''[[Spooks (TV series)|Spooks]]'', including the development of the VX Nerve Agent and other potentially deadly biological weapons.

Porton Down is referenced frequently in the 2020 BBC TV drama ''[[The Salisbury Poisonings]]'', portraying its role in testing substances linked to the 2018 [[poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal]].

Porton Down is referenced frequently in the ITV [[Trigger Point (TV series)|''Trigger Point'']] series, as the origin of a military grade explosive compound HMX-319 which is nicknamed "Her Majesty's Explosive".

===Comics===
''[[Grimbledon Down]]'' was a [[comic strip]] by British cartoonist [[Bill Tidy]], published for many years by ''[[New Scientist]]''. The strip was set in an ostensibly fictitious UK government research lab, referring to the controversial Porton Down biochemical research facility.<ref>{{cite book|title=From Biological Warfare to Healthcare: Porton Down 1940–2000|first1=Peter M.|last1=Hammond|first2=Gradon|last2=Carter|isbn=978-0230287211|publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]]|location=Basingstoke|year=2002|page=1}}</ref>

===Music===
"Porton Down" is the name of a song by [[Peter Hammill]]. The song "Jeopardy" by [[Skyclad (band)|Skyclad]] is about the experiments developed in Porton Down.

==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* [[The United Kingdom and weapons of mass destruction]]
* [[RRH Portreath|CDE Nancekuke]] – manufacturing outstation of Chemical Defence Establishment, 1950s and 60s
* [[MoD Boscombe Down]] and [[Defence CBRN Centre]] – neighbouring facilities
* [[David Kelly (weapons expert)|David Kelly]], [[Lancelot Ware]] – notable individual connected to Porton Down
* [[Rawalpindi experiments]] – experiments involving the use of mustard gas carried out on British and Indian soldiers in the 1930s
* [[Keen as Mustard (documentary)|''Keen as Mustard'']], a documentary film on British and American WWII mustard gas tests in tropical Australia in the 1940s
* [[Operation Vegetarian]] – British military plan to disseminate linseed cakes infected with anthrax spores onto the fields of Germany in 1942
* [[Dugway Proving Ground]] and [[Fort Detrick]] – comparable facilities in the United States of America
* [[Biopreparat]] – comparable facility in the former [[USSR]]
* [[Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal]]
{{div col end}}

== References ==
* ''Porton Down: A Brief History'' by [[G B Carter]], Porton Down's official historian.
* ''Chemical and Biological Defence at Porton Down 1916–2000'' (The Stationery Office, 2000). by G B Carter
* ''Cold War, Hot Science: Applied Research in Britain's Defence Laboratories, 1945–1990'' by [[Bud & Gummett]]

== Notes ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
* [https://www.dstl.gov.uk Dstl official website]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120805173920/http://www.kent.ac.uk/porton-down-project/index.htm Porton Down Cold War Research Project, 1945–1989] – University of Kent, 2010
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070219034509/http://www.wiltshire.police.uk/antler/ Wiltshire police Operation Antler information], archived in 2007
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051015221542/http://www.info.doh.gov.uk/doh/embroadcast.nsf/0/82fffaf249055e5a80256dad004a7d19?OpenDocument Letter from the Department of Health to Health Authorities regarding the Porton Down volunteers], 2005
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071001000027/http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=5970 Archive of the month – Gaddum Papers] Pharmacology and war: the papers of Sir John Henry Gaddum, March 2007, Royal Society
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07hx40t/inside-porton-down-britains-secret-weapons-research-facility Inside Porton Down: Britain's Secret Weapons Research Facility] – television programme, BBC Four, 28 June 2016
* {{Skeptoid | id= 4391| number= 391| title=8 Secret Bases: Real or Fictional? | date= 3 December 2013| quote=1. Porton Down }}
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