QinetiQ says that almost 1,000 employees will be put ‘at risk’ of redundancy during the statutory 90-day consultation period that starts today, on top of over 600 employees who are already ‘at risk’ from the previous redundancy announcement.

National Secretary David Luxton said: “QinetiQ now has a quarter of its 6,000 employees ‘at risk’ of redundancy over the coming months, which is both alarming and distressing for over 1,500 highly skilled scientists, engineers and project managers working at the cutting edge of defence technology and future capabilities for the armed forces.

“The scale of the redundancies, which are attributable to Ministry of Defence spending cuts, sharply exposes the vulnerability of private sector jobs to public expenditure cuts.

“Redundancies on this scale will have a devastating impact on many individuals and their families, and reinforces the bleak economic outlook across the defence sector – directly attributable to the spending decisions now being made by government.”

Most of the redundancies announced will be at Boscombe Down, near Salisbury – recently featured in the BBC Documentary ‘Secret Engineers.’ The site provides technical evaluation and testing of the armed forces’ fighter jets and helicopters, under contract to MOD.