§ Mr. Tom Coxasked the Secretary of State for Defence what has been the number of animals that have died as a result of experiments on them in each of the last five years at Porton Down; and what has been the number that have had to be killed as a result of the effects of experiments on them.
§ Mr. LeeInformation in the form requested is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. However, information is available on the total number of animal experiments reported by the Chemical Defence Establishment, Porton Down, for each of the last four years and is as follows:
1980 1981 1982 1983 17,800 17,200 13,400 9,500 It is normal practice to kill an animal painlessly at the end of an experiment.