§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to meet the target set in the EU 5th Environmental Action Programme of halving the number of animals used in experiments by 2000; and if he will make a statement. [108180]
§ Mr. Mike O'BrienThe 5th Environment Action Programme did not set a baseline against which progress could be monitored. Nor did it set a plan for implementing 708W the proposal. Most member states did not produce accurate statistics in 1993. Fundamental questions, such as whether it was a country-by-country or a Europe wide target, were not addressed. There is no mechanism for a year-on-year reduction.
A European conference was held in April 1997 to discuss the 50 per cent. target. The United Kingdom was represented by Home Office officials, a member of the Animal Procedures Committee, and interest groups. It was generally agreed that the 50 per cent. target was unrealistic, unhelpful and over-simplistic. The reduction target was recognised as ignoring the importance of refining experiments to minimise suffering. It was suggested that specific types of animal use (for example, the use of primates and aspects of regulatory testing) should be targeted.
Neither Directive 86/609/European Economic Community, nor the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, make provision for controlling the overall number of procedures. The Act requires that project licences be granted only if the benefits have been weighed against the costs and the purpose of the work cannot be achieved by other means. We cannot dictate how many applications for new project licences will be submitted, nor how many proposed programmes will satisfy the requirements of the Act, particularly the cost/benefit assessment. We are, however, ensuring that animals are used in scientific procedures only where this is fully justified and that the overall numbers of animals used is minimised as far as possible. We are also pressing for advances in the 3Rs of reduction, refinement and replacement.