Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Government special advisers have been granted access to Porton Down in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) is one of several organisations based at the Porton Down. Each organisation manages and records its visitors separately.

Centrally-held visitor information records for Dstl do not routinely record the role or function of visiting officials and so this information is not available. However, at least two Special Advisers have visited Dstl Porton Down in the past five years, one in 2018 and the other in 2020.