§ 34. Mr. FREEMANasked the Home Secretary whether any applications for licences to experiment on animals under the Cruelty to Animals Act of 1876 have been rejected by his Department during the 10 years ended 31st December, 1929; if so, how many; whether any such rejections were on the grounds that the experiments to be performed thereunder would involve suffering to the animals to be experimented upon; and, if so, how many?
§ Mr. CLYNESApplications for licences are refused and certificates are disallowed from time to time for various reasons, but I am not in a position to give the information specified in the question. This could only be procured by a laborious examination of the files relating to vivisection; and I should not feel justified in directing such an inquiry to be made.
§ Mr. FREEMANWill the right hon. Gentleman consider withholding licences for further experiments which have been proved over a long period of time to be useless for the purposes in view, such as in the case of cancer.