§ Lord Pestonasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will publish the figures relating to scientific procedures performed on living animals in Great Britain in 1999. [HL3552]
§ Lord Bassam of BrightonThe information requested will be published as a Command Paper,Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals, Great Britain 1999, on 17 August.
My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Office (Mr O'Brien) has reported that: the number of procedures started in 1999 was about 2.66 million, almost exactly the same as in 1998: 83 per cent of these were performed using mice and rats; the number of animals used in 1999 was 2.57 million, about 24,000 fewer than in 1998; and the number of procedures involving the use of genetically modified animals rose by 63,000 to 511,000 in 1999, but this was almost exactly offset by a decrease to 1,894,000 in the use of animals with a normal genetic constitution.