§ Adam PriceTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what funding has been allocated each year since 1997 to develop alternative tests to replace animal experimentation; to which Departments it has been allocated; and what plans there are to increase future funding. [79749]
§ Mr. Bob AinsworthThe United Kingdom Government, across various Government Departments, spends in the region of £2 million each year and at an international level, we will continue to support the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM) through contributions to the European Union. However, most work on the search for and development of alternatives to using animals in scientific procedures is neither done by Government nor with Government money—it is conducted and funded by the research industry itself, which spends many millions of pounds on it each year.
Every year the Home Office makes available to the Animal Procedures Committee a budget for research aimed at developing or promoting the use of alternatives which replace animal use, reduce the number of animals used, or refine the procedures involved to minimise suffering (the 'Three Rs'). Details of annual budgets and completed research projects are published in the annual report of the Animal Procedures Committee, which is available from the Stationery Office. The amount made available to the Committee each year since 1997 was:
£ 1997–98 182,000 1998–99 259,000 1999–2000 259,000 2000–01 265,500 2001–02 280,000 2002–03 280,000 The use of alternatives is widely encouraged, and the use of animals in regulated procedures is prohibited by the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 in cases where a scientifically valid non-animal alternative is available. Any lack of progress in research into alternatives is more often due to the limitations of science rather than inadequate funding. However, this will be considered further in the context of the 803W recommendation of the House of Lords Select Committee on Animals in Scientific Procedures that a Centre for the 3Rs should be set up. The Government are considering their response to the Select Committee's report.