§ Baroness Finlay of Llandaffasked Her Majesty's Government:
How long is the average delay from the initial application at local level to the issuing of a project licence under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986; and whether this delay causes unnecessary duplication of research involving animals as defined in the Act. [HL2760]
§ Baroness Scotland of AsthalIn the period April 2003–March 2004, 77 per cent of completed and signed project licence applications were processed within the 123WA target of 35 working days agreed with the scientific research community. Many applications were actually turned around in signficantly less time, and the average processing time for all applications was 26 working days. We expect to do even better than that once we have in place a new IT system. We have no evidence that the time taken to process project licence applications has caused any unnecessary duplication of research
The time taken to process such applications varies according to their nature and complexity, but the Home Office has agreed with representatives of the scientific research community that it will try to process 85 per cent of applications for project licences within 35 working days, excluding any time spent waiting while further information is obtained from the applicant. The Home Office cannot account for time taken on applications while they are being prepared and going through local ethical review processes within the establishments of origin.