§ Sir R. Russellasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will state the numbers of animals of each kind used in 1969 in the testing, screening and manufacture of drugs, vaccines and agricultural chemicals and pesticides, respectively.
§ Mr. Merlyn ReesInformation collected annually from each person licensed under the Cruelty to Animals 491W Act, 1876 shows the number of mandatory animal tests made for the standardisation of sera, vaccines and drugs intended for use in the treatment of disease in man or animals as required by the Therapeutic Substances Act, 1956 and the Diseases of Animals Act, 1950 and regulations made thereunder. The return does not include details of the species used in these tests or show the number of experiments performed for the screening and testing of other drugs and substances, where this is not specifically required by law. Statistics for 1969 are not yet available; in 1968 1,204,860 experiments on living animals were performed as mandatory tests. The use of animals for the production of vaccines and sera is not subject to the 1876 Act and no details are available.