§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he accepts the Medical Research Council's recommendations that(a) the establishment of Home Office inspectors needs to be increased, and (b) their role to be re-examined with a view to their being more involved in the monitoring of the treatment of animals during experiments.
§ Mrs. RumboldI refer the hon. Member to my reply of 11 March 1991 to a question from the hon. Member for Glasgow, Pollok (Mr. Dunnachie) at column335.
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§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many non-purpose bred animals were supplied to the Charing Cross and Westminster medical schools within the last year; by whom they were supplied; and for what specific experiments they were supplied.
§ Mrs. RumboldIt is not normally our practice to provide such detailed information about individual scientific procedure establishments, but I have the agreement of the medical school to say that no such animals were supplied within the last year.
§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures he plans to take in order to detect contraventions of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 by personal and project licence holders.
§ Mrs. RumboldThe controls to ensure the proper conduct of animal procedures within scientific user establishments operate at a number of levels. Certificate holders for establishments designated under section 6 of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 are answerable to my right hon. Friend for ensuring that the requirements of the Act are fully observed. In addition, the management of research projects and the control of the application of procedures to animals are achieved through conditions attached to project and personal licences. In many cases, project licences are discussed with inspectors
Table A: Number of deaths in prison by year and by ethnic origin 1 January 1981–14 June 1991 Year White West Indian Indian Pakistani African Arab Mixed Total 1981 — — — — — — — 58 1982 — — — — — — — 61 1983 — — — — — — — 64 1984 — — — — — — — 65 1985 — — — — — — — 59 1986 — — — — — — — 58 1987 — — — — — — — 80 1988 — — — — — — — 80 1989 71 3 3 1 — 1 — 180 1990 82 3 — 1 1 — — 87 19912 27 2 — — — 2 1 32 1 Ethnic origin not recorded for one prisoner. 2 To 14 June. 24W
Table B: Deaths in police custody or otherwise with the police 1 January 1981–14 June 1991 Year Metropolitan Police Other forces (England and Wales) Total 1981 27 22 49 1982 27 28 55 1983 18 25 43 1984 15 19 34 1985 14 23 37 1986 15 26 41 1987 28 26 54 1988 30 38 68 1989 37 36 73 1990 20 41 61 19911 8 16 24 1 To June 14. and advice is given before a formal application is made. Project licence holders and personal licensees are answerable to certificate holders and to the Home Office.
Infringements of the Act, or of licences issued under it, come to light generally during visits made by inspectors, when they observe procedures being carried out, discuss the progress of the research and examine the records which are required to be kept. Most visits by inspectors are unannounced.
The appendix to the "Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals, Great Britain", gives the number of infringements dealt with each year, together with details of the action taken.