§ Mr. Boyesasked the Secretary of State for Defence whether he is able, without compromising security, to give figures for the numbers of animals killed during experiments on chemical and biological warfare experiments at Porton Down in 1984 or for the latest period for which figures are available.
§ Mr. LeeRecords of experiments involving animals are maintained in a form suitable to meet the requirement that the number of such experiments should be reported to the Home Office annually. Information in the form requested is therefore not readily available, but the vast majority of animals used in experiments are killed. In 1983 the total number of animal experiments conducted at the chemical defence establishment, Porton Down, was about 9,500, the majority of which were in the chemical defence field. The figure for 1984 will be available shortly and I will write to the hon. Gentleman.