§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department under what circumstances a licence can be awarded under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 in respect of a product or ingredient of a product already freely available on the United Kingdom market.[16458]
§ Mr. George HowarthOther than finished cosmetic products, for which no new authorities to test will be issued, such authorities under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 are issued for testing only when there is a specific regulatory requirement: for example, to meet the requirements of the Dangerous Substances Directive, the Biocidal Products Directive or the Medical Devices Directive.
§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to increase the availability of public information under section 24 of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986.[16459]
§ Mr. George HowarthThere are no plans to change section 24 of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. It will therefore remain an offence to disclose information given in confidence. Such information includes the details of establishments and individuals licensed under the Act, and details of licence applications.
We do, however, plan to make more information available on how the Act is operated. The policy and procedures for handling infringements were described in the 1996 annual report of the Animal Procedures Committee. The Committee is also planning to produce an extended statement on the cost-benefit assessment required under section 5(4) of the Act and I understand that this will describe the process by which programmes of work are assessed. A revised and updated version of the "Guidance on the Operation of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986" is also being produced.
§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many project licence applications put before the Animal Procedures Committee in 1996 were(a) approved and (b) refused.[16460]
§ Mr. George HowarthDuring 1996, the Committee considered two new project licence applications.
249WThe Committee does not grant or refuse applications. It can only advise the Secretary of State on whether licences should be granted. In these cases, the Home Secretary decided that the two licences should be granted.
The Committee also saw two applications to amend existing licence authorities. One requested an extension of the licence to the maximum allowed term of five years. This was granted by the Home Secretary. The other, requesting changes to the existing authorities, was considered on several occasions by the Committee during 1996. Some of the requested amendments were granted.
Further details of these considerations were published in the Committee's annual report for 1996.
§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the circumstances under which Alice, the Macaque monkey at the Institute of Neurology, died; which procedures were authorised to be undertaken on the animal; and what assessment he has made of the extent to which the evidence given in application for a project licence to use Alice met the requirements of section 5(5) of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986.[16461]
§ Mr. George HowarthAlice was used in a non-recovery procedure under anaesthesia in February 1996.
After craniotomy and laminectomy under general anaesthesia, her brain was stimulated electrically and recordings were made from spinal nerves. (The purpose was to investigate the way in which cells in the motor cortex address motoneurones controlling hand and forearm activity.) Alice was then given an overdose of anaesthetic.
Section 5(5) of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 requires that applicants give adequate consideration to the feasibility of achieving the purposes of the programme of work by means not involving protected animals. This work could only be undertaken in living animals because the complexity of the neurological processes cannot be reproduced by other means.