§ Mr. MilburnTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many scientific procedures on living animals have been undertaken without anaesthesia since 1986.
§ Mr. Charles WardleThe information is published in table 21 of the "Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals 1991", a copy of which is in the Library. Information for 1986 relates to animal experiments under the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876.
§ Mr. MilburnTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many scientific procedures were carried out on living animals in the first half of 1992 and for the first half of each year since 1986.
§ Mr. Charles WardleInformation on the number of scientific procedures is collected only for whole years and is published in table 23 of the Command Paper "Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals, Great Britain 1991", Cm 2023, a copy of which is in the Library.
Information for 1986 relates to animal experiments under the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876, which was replaced on 1 January 1987 by the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. The 1986 Act not only encompasses work covered by the 1876 Act, but extends to some work not previously controlled.
§ Mr. MilburnTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many scientific procedures on living animals in the United Kingdom have bred animals with harmful genetic defects or transgenic animals since 1986.
§ Mr. Charles WardleThe information requested is contained in table 15 of the Command Paper "Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals, Great Britain" for each year since 1987, and table 6 or 7 of the HMSO publication "Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals, Northern Ireland", copies of which are in the Library.
Information with respect to transgenic animals is not available before 1990. Also, from 1990 inclusive the method of counting the production of animals with harmful genetic defects changed, so it is not possible to make a direct comparison of data from before and after that date.
Information for the year 1986 is not available since the procedures described were not regulated by the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876, which was then in force.
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§ Mr. MilburnTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to revise the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Charles WardleA number of revisions to the 1986 Act will be made during 1993.
The Government announced on 3 December, at column 336, in response to a question by my hon. Friend the Member for Westminster, North (Sir J. Wheeler), that we have accepted the majority view of the Animal Procedures Committee that the common octopus or Octopus vulgaris should be brought within the controls of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986.
As reported in the annual report of the Animal Procedures Committee for 1991, schedule 1 to the Act, which sets out those methods of humane killing which do not require project or personal licence authority, is currently being revised.
We shall also be adding quail—coturnix coturnix—to schedule 2 to the Act, which lists those animals for use in scientific procedures which may be obtained only from designated breeding or supplying establishments. This is in order to ensure that the United Kingdom complies fully with the requirements of EC directive 86/609.