Animal Procedures (Hansard, 19 July 2001)

§ Mr. Pope
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will publish the Animal Procedures Committee annual report for 2000. [6028]

§ Angela Eagle
I have today published the committee's annual report for 2000, and laid it before Parliament pursuant to section 20(5) of the Animal (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. I am pleased to note that the committee has continued to make progress on its extensive programme of work.

§ Ms Bridget Prentice
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will publish the figures relating to scientific procedures performed on living animals in Great Britain in 2000, licensed under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. [6030]

§ Angela Eagle
The information requested will be published in full as a Command Paper on 26 July 2001.
The Command Paper will contain a great deal of detailed statistical data. I can meanwhile report the following key facts: the number of procedures started in 2000 was just over 2.71 million, an increase of 58,000 (2.2 per cent.) on 1999; 66 per cent. were for fundamental biological research and applied human and veterinary medicine, and 17 per cent. for toxicological/safety testing (mostly for pharmaceutical evaluation purposes); 82 per cent. of the procedures involved use of rats, mice and other rodents, and fish and birds were used in 14 per cent. of the remainder; dogs, cats, horses and non-human primates, accorded special protection under the 1986 Act, were collectively used in less than 1 per cent. of the procedures; the number of procedures involving the use of genetically modified animals, mostly mice, rose by 70,000 (14 per cent.) to 582,000 in 2000; the total number of animals used for the first time in 2000 was 2.64 million, an increase of almost 74,000 (2.9 per cent.) on 1999.