§ Mr. HancockTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what experiments took place under licence at Wickham Research Laboratories, Wickham, Hampshire, in each of the last two years; what animals were involved; and if he will make a statement; [116939]
(2) how many applications for licences for experiments in the Wickham Research Laboratories, Wickham, Hampshire have been made in each of the last five years; and how many applications were successful. [116940]
§ Mr. Mike O'BrienSection 24 of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 prevents disclosure of detailed information about individual establishments licensed under the Act that has been given in confidence.
Wickham Laboratories Ltd. has agreed to release the following information about its work. Wickham Laboratories Ltd. has applied for three project licences under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 during the last five years and currently holds three licences under the 1986 Act. The establishment undertakes mandatory safety testing of pharmaceutical and medical products. The animals used are rabbits, guinea pigs and mice.
We are reviewing section 24 in the context of the Freedom of Information legislation.
§ Mr. HancockTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many laboratory rodents were killed in each of the last four years as a result of scientific procedures; and if he will make a statement. [116715]
§ Mr. Mike O'BrienInformation on the number of rodents killed as a result of their use in scientific procedures is not collected centrally by the Home Office. The number of rodents used in scientific procedures is set out in Table la of the Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals Great Britain published annually. Figures for 1999 are being collected now and will be published in July. Figures for the four years up to 1998 are as follows:
Number 1995 2,270,097 1996 2,304,483 1997 2,248,094 1998 2,243,377 These figures represent the number of rodents on which scientific procedures were started during the reporting year. Almost all of these animals would have been killed when the procedures were completed, but this would not necessarily have been in the same year.
§ Mr. HancockTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many scientific procedures were started on laboratory animals in 1999–2000 and in each of the previous three years. [116718]
§ Mr. Mike O'BrienThe number of scientific procedures carried out by species of animal and primary purpose of procedure is set out in Table 1 of the Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals Great Britain
370Wpublished annually. Figures for 1999 are not yet available and will be published in July. Those for the previous three years are as follows:
Number 1996 2,716,587 1997 2,635,969 1998 2,659,662