§ 4. Mr. Peter Freemanasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many certificates were issued last year to perform experiments on living animals under the Cruelty to Animals Act, 1876; in how many cases were no experiments performed; and whether he will consider curtailing the issue of such unnecessary certificates.
§ Sir D. Maxwell FyfeIn 1952 I granted 678 licences, valid for five years. During that year 1,335 licensees performed no experiments under the Act. Every year the revocation of licences which have not been used during their currency is reviewed.
§ Mr. FreemanMany of these 1,335 have never performed a single experiment since they first received a certificate, and will the right hon. and learned Gentleman not consider curtailing the number of certificates issued in this way?
§ Sir D. Maxwell FyfeWe keep a check on current years to find the licensees who have not performed an experiment. When we have discovered this, we work back to see whether they have up to that time not performed an experiment for, say, four or five years. If they have not, we prune the list.