§ Lord Houghton of Sowerbyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether licences granted for the performance of experiments on living animals under the Cruelty to Animals Act I 876 protect licensees or others employed on licensed premises from prosecutions for causing unnecessary cruelty to animals in the course of handling animals before or after experiments.
§ Lord EltonSubsection (3) of Section 1 of the Protection of Animals Act 1911, which makes it an offence to inflict on any animal various forms of cruelty, suffering or ill-treatment, provides that nothing in the section shall render illegal anything lawfully done under the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876. An identical provision exists in the equivalent Scottish legislation.