§ Mr. Hancockasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he has any plans to prohibit the use of animals in cosmetic tests.
§ Mr. MellorNo, but under the proposed new legislation all applications for project licences for the testing of cosmetics will be referred to the new Animal Procedures Committee.
§ Mr. Hancockasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will take into account the therapeutic necessity of a new product when issuing licences for experiments on animals under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Bill [Lords].
§ Mr. MellorUnder clause 5(4) of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Bill[Lords] my right hon. Friend is required to weigh the likely adverse effects of scientific procedures on animals against the likely benefit of the work. He will take into account, where it is relevant, the possible therapeutic effect of a product.
§ Mr. Hancockasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many inspections were made by his Department's inspectors, employed under the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876, between 1980 and 1985; and what proportion of these visits were unannounced.
§ Mr. MellorThe information available on the number of visits made by the cruelty to animals inspectorate to Departments within places registered under the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876, and to other places, relates to the years 1980 to 1984 and is given in table 24 of the "Statistics of Experiments on Living Animals, Great Britain 1984" (Cmnd 9574). The majority of these visits were made without notice.
§ Mr. Hancockasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many inspectors are currently employed under the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876.
§ Mr. MellorOne chief inspector, two superintending inspectors and 12 inspectors.
§ Mr. Hancockasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what is the estimated number of licences in the substantial severity category of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Bill [Lords] that are expected to be applied for;
(82) what is the estimated number of licences in the moderate severity category of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Bill [Lords] that are expected to be applied for;
524W(3) what is the estimated number of licences in the mild severity category of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Bill [Lords] that are expected to be applied for.
§ Mr. MellorIt is not possible to give reliable estimates in advance of the new licensing system coming into operation. It is likely that most work will fall into the mild or moderate categories.
§ Mr. Hancockasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if there are regulations ensuring that suffering experienced by animals during the LD50 test is kept to a minimum.
§ Mr. MellorThe pain condition imposed under the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876 requires any animal in severe and enduring pain to immediately and humanely killed. Similarly, under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Bill[Lords], all personal licences will contain a condition requiring the immediate humane killing of any animal found to be in severe pain or severe distress which cannot be alleviated. There will also be a condition in every personal licence requiring the holder to take precautions to reduce to the minimum consistent with the purposes of the procedure any pain, distress or discomfort to the animals used.
§ Mr. Hancockasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if there are regulations to ensure that animals undergoing the LD50 test are anaesthetised.
§ Mr. MellorNo. LD50 tests are not normally performed under anaesthesia, unless an anaesthetic agent is itself the subject of the test. The purpose of an LD50 test is to determine the toxicity of a particular substance and the administration of an anaesthetic, which is itself toxic, would be likely to invalidate the result.
§ Mr. Hancockasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the average number of animals used in each LD50 test.
§ Mr. MellorThe specific information requested is not available a LD50 tests are not separately identified in the current returns of statistics of experiments performed on living animals. The number of animals necessary for toxicity studies varies widely. A formal LD50 test employs five dose levels with 10 animals in each group. Other determinations in use might require as few as 10 animals in all.
§ Mr. Hancockasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what information he has as to the breeds of dogs, other than greyhounds and purpose-bred animals, used in experiments in laboratories in each of the years between 1980 and 1985, and as to where these dogs were obtained;
(2) what information he has as to the number of greyhounds used in experiments in laboratories in each of the years from 1980 to 1985, and as to where they were obtained.
§ Mr. MellorThe information requested is not available, as data on individual breeds of dogs and the sources from which animals are obtained are not collected in the current returns on statistics of experiments performed on living animals. Information on the number of experiments started on all breeds of dogs in the years 1980 to 1984 is given in table 14 of "Statistics of 525W Experiments on Living Animals, Great Britain, 1984" (Cmnd 9574); the corresponding figure for 1985 will not be available until the summer.
§ Mr. Hancockasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many animal experiments have been conducted since 1980 in connection with forensic studies; and what species of animals were used for this purpose.
§ Mr. MellorInformation on the number of experiments performed and species of animal used for this purpose under licences granted by the Secretary of State is not available. Section 12 of the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876 empowers a High Court judge to grant a licence or give a certificate authorising experiments on living animals where this is essential for the purposes of justice in a criminal case. We believe that this power is rarely exercised.
§ Mr. Hancockasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department which drugs intended for the treatment of cancer require the LD50 test.
§ Mr. MellorI take it that the question refers to the testing of new drugs. The testing requirements for these will depend on the precise nature of the drug concerned and are determined, in the light of this, by the appropriate regulatory authorities.
§ Mr. Hancockasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department which regulations currently demand either a precise or approximate LD50 determination in laboratory animals.
§ Mr. MellorThe specific information requested is not collected centrally, and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. Acute toxicity studies, including LD50 values to varying degrees of precision, are required by regulatory authorities in the United Kingdom, the European Community and in other countries as part of the safety testing of a wide range of products, including vaccines, industrial, agricultural and household chemicals, pesticides and some medicines, as well as other products in daily use.