Chemical weapons expert forces UK government to back down on blacklisting policy

UK government rules that prevented Dan Kaszeta, a chemical weapons expert, from speaking at an international conference organised by the Ministry of Defence have been suspended following a legal challenge. Under the rules, speakers could be blacklisted if they had criticised the government on social media over the past five years.

Kaszeta, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, was invited to attend the international Chemical Weapons Demilitarisation Conference in May by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), an agency linked to the Ministry of Defence. In April, he received an email from DSTL withdrawing the invitation. It said that a check on his social media had identified material that was critical of government officials and policy. It also revealed that government guidance required the vetting of social media accounts of potential speakers.

After a legal challenge, the government apologised in early July and now says it will review its guidance, some of which was never made public. Speaking in the House of Commons, Jeremy Quin MP, minister for the Cabinet Office, justified the use of such checks saying: ‘Taxpayers’ money should not unwittingly be used to pay for speakers linked to abhorrent organisations or individuals who promote hate or discriminatory beliefs, which could bring the civil service into disrepute … there are certain abhorrent organisations that we should not pay or give a platform to and cause embarrassment to our civil service or our country.’