By the 1970s it was decided that a reduced programme of biological defence work should be started by a small team transformed from the Establishment to the Chemical Defence Establishment and that the Microbiological Research Establishment should be placed under the aegis of a civil authority. The Establishment closed as a Ministry of Defence facility on 31 March 1979 and re-opened the next day as the Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research (CAMR) within the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS).
In April 1994, CAMR moved from PHLS centre to the Microbiological Research Authority (MRA), reporting to the Department of Health and still continuing the programme in civil microbiological research started in 1979.
Thus, by 1991 the Chemical Defence Establishment became the Chemical and Biological Defence Establishment and was one of the six new Defence Support Agencies. In 1995, the Establishment became part of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA), an executive agency of MOD evolved in 1994 from proposals of the "Front Line First" Defence Cost Studies.
In 2001, DERA split into two organisations: QinetiQ, a private company, and DSTL (Defence Science and Technology Laboratory), which remains an agency of MOD. Porton Down is now known as DSTL, Porton Down.
NB The above text is taken from the article "Porton Down: a brief history" by G B Carter, Porton Down’s official historian. A more in-depth account can be found in Mr Carter’s book Chemical and Biological at Porton Down 1916-2000 <http://www.clicktso.com/portal.asp?AF=A10045&DT=Book&DI=0117729337> (The Stationery Office, 2000).
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From the site: http://www.mod.uk/issues/portondownvolunteers/history.htm