§ Mr. Skinnerasked to Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he is taking to encourage research establishments using animals in experiments to substitute tissue cultures or simple life forms for whole animals.
§ Mr. MellorEach year we bring to the attention of all licensees the importance of taking every reasonable step, including consultation with their colleagues and a study of available scientific literature, to confirm, before using living animals, that their investigations cannot effectively be carried out by any alternative means; and urge them to give thought to the possibilities of developing new alternatives to the use of new methods, so that other licensees may be helped to reduce the number of animals. Our inspectorate is also concerned to see that the use of animals is limited to the minimum necessary.