§ Mr. ColvinTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the figure for the number of experiments on live animals conducted in the last year for which these are available; what was the figure for 10 years ago; and what was the percentage change.
§ Mrs. RumboldThe figures for experiments on living animals in 1980 and scientific procedures on living animals in 1990 are given in table 18 of "Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals. Great Britain 1990" (Cm 1574), a copy of which is in the Library.
The 1990 figure is 30 per cent. lower than that recorded for 1980, but the underlying fall is greater than this. During this period the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 was introduced which extended the controls on the use of living animals in research to some research work not previously controlled. As a result the 1990 figure includes procedures which would not have been counted as experiments in 1980.