§ Mr. Irvingasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what his Department is doing to sponsor the 275W adaptation and deployment to medical research of recent advances in computer technology for the purpose of replacing animals used in medical experiments.
§ Mr. BrookeThe Department's responsibilities for the support of biomedical research are discharged by the Medical Research Council (MRC), which receives a grant-in-aid from the science budget, and by the universities, which receive block grants for teaching and research from the University Grants Committee.
I understand that there are a number of ways in which the application of modern computer technology is helping researchers reduce the number of animals which they need to use in experiments. The person conducting an experiment is, however, in the best position to decide, from discussion with his colleagues, from his own experience and from the literature, whether computer or other techniques will serve the purposes of his research while reducing or eliminating the use of animals. Furthermore, through knowledge of his own techniques and those of others, he is best able to judge during the course of his experiments when an alternative could usefully be developed.
All researchers holding licences from the Home Office under the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876 are reminded of the desirability of reducing to a minimum their use of living animals. In addition, the MRC particularly asks its staff to use, whenever possible, procedures which do not involve animals or, where this is not possible, to use the minimum number of animals that will give valid results in any experiment; also to ensure that any new procedure which reduces the number of live animals needed for research is communicated through the usual media so that it becomes known to all who might make use of it.