§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Caroline Flint)I wish to announce that the publication entitled "Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals in Great Britain-2003" is being presented as a Command Paper, Cm 6291, today. Copies will be placed in the House Library.
This annual report meets the requirement in the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 to keep Parliament informed about the use of animals for experimental or other purposes. It also forms the basis for meeting periodic reporting requirements at EU level. The format and content of future reports is currently being reviewed by the Animals Procedures Committee.
The report shows an overall increase over last year of 2.2 per cent. in the number of procedures undertaken. The total number of procedures was 2.79 million, an increase of 59,000 over the previous year. This is within typical year-on-year variability.
Non-toxicological procedures accounted for about 84 per cent. of the procedures carried out in 2003. These included studies for fundamental biological or applied research in human and veterinary medicine, with the main areas of use being for immunological studies, pharmaceutical research and development, and cancer research.
107WSProcedures for toxicological purposes accounted for the remaining 16 per cent. of all procedures. About 63 per cent. of these were for testing the safety and efficacy of new drugs and medicines.
In keeping with previous years, those procedures which used mice or rats (or other rodents) were the great majority at 85 per cent. Those using fish amounted to 6 per cent. and those using birds, 4 per cent. The total of all procedures using dogs, cats, horses and non-human primates, that is those species offered special protection by the Act, was less than 1 per cent. of the total.
Genetically normal animals were used in 1,749,000 regulated procedures, representing 63 per cent. of all procedures for 2003 (compared with 65 per cent. in 2002 and 84 per cent. in 1995). Genetically modified animals (nearly all rodents) were used in 764,000 regulated procedures, representing 27 per cent. of all procedures for 2003 (compared with 26 per cent. in 2002 and 8 per cent. in 1995).
These trends have been evident over recent years, reflecting the changing balance in use between genetically normal and modified animals, and are set to continue as advances in genetic science open up new and promising avenues of research.
I should point out in relation to the statistics that the Home Office, as regulatory authority under the 1986 Act, does not control the overall amount of animal research and testing which takes place, the imperative being to minimise the numbers of animals used for justifiable purposes. We ensure, in carrying out our licensing function, that the provisions of the Act are rigorously applied in each programme of work. All animal use must be justified, and for each particular programme of work the number of animals used and the suffering caused must be minimised.