§ Mrs. DeanTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what was the total amount of money spent on medical research(a) using animals and (b) using alternatives to animals by (i) Government and (ii) industry in 2000–01. [153373]
§ Ms Hewitt[holding answer 12 March 2001]It is impossible to put a precise figure on medical research spend that has required either the use of animals or alternatives to animals. All experimental work with animals is subject to approval by the Home Office. The majority of medical research projects do not involve any animal procedures. It is not possible to determine how many of these projects could have been pursued using animal experiments, and would have been issued licences, if the alternative approaches had not been available. Once alternatives to a specific experimental method have been successfully developed and shown to be effective, the Home Office will not issue a licence to conduct the same type of work using animals. All experiments using animals must satisfy the strict regulation of the 1986 Act.
388WSecondly, where research projects depend on some animal experimentation, it is not possible to disaggregate easily the animal-related and other costs of medical research projects. For example, a research group studying how a mutated gene contributes to cancer might gain much information by studying individual cells in a laboratory, but might also need to examine how the gene contributes to disease in a whole animal, such as a mouse, to gain full understanding of the problem.