HC Deb 30 March 1998 vol 309 cc394-5W
Mr. Nigel Jones

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will increase in real terms the budget for research into alternatives to animal testing. [36427]

Mr. George Howarth

We have already increased the budget from £182,000 in 1997–98 to £259,000 in 1998–99—an increase of 42 per cent. No decisions about funding in future years have yet been taken.

Mr. Hancock

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to reduce the use of primates for research. [36498]

Mr. George Howarth

We will continue to ensure that primates are used in scientific procedures only where this is fully justified and where the purposes of the programme of work cannot be achieved by methods not involving animals or by methods involving animals of other species.

Authority to use wild-caught primates will be given only where exceptional and specific justification can be established. Specific justification will also be required to use Old World (as opposed to New World) primates.

We announced in November that the use of Great Apes would not be authorised.

Most primate use in the United Kingdom is for safety testing of pharmaceuticals, not for research. We are encouraging regulators to review the need to use animals in regulatory safety testing.

Mr. Nigel Jones

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cosmetic experiments were carried out in the United Kingdom on behalf of foreign companies during 1996. [36425]

Mr. George Howarth

This information is not collected.

Mr. Nigel Jones

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will alter the terms of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 to allow publication of the names of companies commissioning cosmetic testing. [36426]

Mr. George Howarth

Section 24 of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 prevents the disclosure of information given in confidence. The Government have announced that they will be reviewing such statutory bars to decide whether they should remain or should be amended to bring them into line with the "substantial harm" and "public interest" tests proposed in the White Paper on Freedom of Information: "Your Right to Know" (Cm 3818). No decisions have yet been made concerning the 1986 Act.