§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Newport, West (Mr. Flynn) of 6 November 1997,Official Report, column 284, if he will list the numbers and nature of experiments carried out in 1996 where animals were used to test and develop means of protecting United Kingdom service personnel against terrorist and battlefield weapons. [15952]
§ Mr. George HowarthThis information is not collected centrally by the Home Office. Licensees are not required in their annual statistical returns to specify whether procedures are for the purpose of protecting or treating service personnel. Military medicine is not a separate category of permissible work under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. The numbers of animals in question may be recorded in the 1996 annual statistics variously under the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of690W disease; the advance of biological science; the modification of physiological function; and protection of the environment.