The disposal of the Ministry of Defence's 18.9% holding in Qinetiq would see the former
Defence Evaluation and Research Agency pass fully into private hands after it was floated in 2006.
QinetiQ was formed from the
Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, incorporating the bulk of the MoD's non-nuclear research, technology and test and evaluation establishments.
It comes after the former
Defence Evaluation and Research Agency was split into two bodies, one specialising in sensitive military technology and the other in commercial applications.
THE Ministry of Defence has sparked a row over its plan to privatise the top-secret
Defence Evaluation and Research Agency. The privatisation, to be announced this week, will be challenged on national security grounds by MPs and the 9,000 scientific staff involved, as well as Pentagon chiefs in America.
The plan is to split the
Defence Evaluation and Research Agency in two, keeping its most secret work in the public sector.
The MoD's
Defence Evaluation and Research Agency - responsible for anti- terrorist techniques and weapon design - said the Poles were not thought to be a serious security risk.
The newly-privatised
Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, now called QinetiQ, plans to train its own security force.
The Government has decided to sell its stake in state research organisation Qinetiq - established last year as part of a partial privatisation of the Ministry of Defence's research arm, the
Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, which has a large operation at Malvern.
In a written Commons answer, Defence Secretary Mr George Robertson announced he was to launch a "consultation exercise" on selling part of the
Defence Evaluation and Research Agency which develops and tests new weapons systems to the private sector.