§ Mr. Freesonasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will consider amending the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876 to forbid any live animal experiment if the object could be achieved by alternative means;
(2) if he will provide funds for research into the development of humane alternatives to live animal experiments;
(3) if he will consider introducing legislation to prohibit the use of animals in experiments solely for the purpose of testing a cosmetic preparation or making any test in the course of the development of a cosmetic preparation.
(4) what information his Department has of new alternatives being developed to replace the use of live animals in experiments; and if he will give details.
§ Mr. WhitelawNo. It would not be right to deprive the public of the safeguards which these experiments are designed to afford. It is the Government's view that alternative methods of experiment should be developed whenever possible but that this can best be done by scientists in the course of their own research progammes. I have no proposals to provide funds in this field. The attention of all licensees under the Cruelty of Animals Act 1876 is, however, regularly drawn to the importance of taking every reasonable step to confirm, before using live animals, that their investigations cannot be effectively carried out by any alternative means; and they are urged to give thought to the possibilities of developing new alternatives. My Department is aware, mainly from scientific literature, of the development of new alternatives but identification and provision of the details could be done only at disproportionate cost.