ANIMALS (SCIENTIFIC PROCEDURES) ACT 1986 (Hansard, 17 December 1986)

The Minister of State, Home Office (The Earl of Caithness)

The main provisions of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 will be brought into force on 1st January 1987. The new Act was the result of painstaking work and close collaboration between Government, the scientific community and the moderate animal welfare movement. The new controls which it introduces will, when fully implemented, represent a real advance in the welfare of animals used in research, providing for effective and rigorous control of all experimentation on animals while at the same time allowing essential research and safety testing to be continued.

All of the new Act with the exception of the controls on the sources of the most commonly used laboratory animals will come into force on 1st January 1987. The introduction of the new controls and the conversion of existing work is a major task involving sustained detailed effort. The major innovation of the new Act—the project licence—will be established in a planned programme of work which will be completed by the end of 1988. Once this task is completed, work will start on the inspection of establishments for designation as breeding or supplying establishments under the Act, so that the controls on the source of laboratory animals may be introduced as soon as possible.

The coming into force of this new Act is a notable landmark in the history of animal welfare. When in full operation it will be seen to provide for a rigorous and effective system of control over experiments on living animals. We have increased the size of the inspectorate and provided additional administrative resources to ensure this. I am sure that the confidence of the many groups which supported this legislation during its passage will be fully vindicated.