§ Mr. Hooleyasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will arrange for present testing protocols, involving the use of live animals, to be reviewed and updated.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneI shall be writing to the hon. Member.
§ Mr. Hooleyasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will provide support to the information centre of the Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneNo.
§ Mr. Hooleyasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what steps are being taken to expand and make more readily available within educational and research institutions where live animals are used such facilities as tissue banks and computer access; and if he will discuss this with the Medical Research Council and the University Grants Committee.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneIt is for those educational and research institutions where live 155W animals are used to decide on, and thereafter provide, such facilities as they consider necessary for their work. They strongly encourage, wherever possible, techniques which obviate or reduce the use of animals.
§ Mr. Hooleyasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what research is currently being carried out by the Medical Research Council into alternative techniques to the use of live animals for research.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneIn the view of the Medical Research Council, specific research projects on alternative techniques to the use of live animals in biomedical research would not be helpful because these techniques are best developed by scientists in the course of their own research programmes. The Medical Research Council strongly encourages, wherever appropriate, the use of alternative techniques in the research it supports.