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THE
PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES
OFFICIAL REPORT
IN THE FOURTH SESSION OF THE FIFTY-FOURTH PARLIAMENT OF THE
UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND
[WHICH OPENED 11 MAY 2005]
FIFTY-EIGHTH YEAR OF THE REIGN OF
HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II
SIXTH SERIES VOLUME 498
FOURTEENTH VOLUME OF SESSION 2008-2009
House of Commons
Monday 26 October 2009
The House met at half-past Two o’clock
PRAYERS
[MR. SPEAKER in the Chair]
BUSINESS BEFORE QUESTIONS
COMMITTEE OF SELECTION
Ordered,
That Sir George Young be discharged from the Committee of
Selection and Mr. Oliver Heald be added.—(Mr. McAvoy, on
behalf of the Committee of Selection.)
Oral Answers to Questions
HOME DEPARTMENT
The Secretary of State was asked—
Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act
1. David Taylor (North-West Leicestershire) (Lab/Co-op):
If he will bring forward legislative proposals to repeal
section 24 of the Animals (Scientific Procedures)
Act 1986. [295125]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the
Home Department (Meg Hillier): Mr. Speaker, may I
say what a pleasure it is to be back and to serve under
your chairmanship for the first time? It is interesting
how much has occurred. I have given birth to a baby,
and an awful lot has occurred in Parliament in that
same period.
My hon. Friend raises an important point, but we
have no plans to review section 24 before we know the
outcome of directive 86/609 on the protection of animals
used for scientific purposes, which is currently being
debated in the European Union.
David Taylor: Campaigners and politicians are rightly
concerned by a 14 per cent. increase in the number of
animal experiments licensed by the Home Office in
2008, yet section 24 denies them the information on
which they can properly debate the direction of policy.
Will the Government urgently review the operation of
this democratically dubious legislation, despite any
understandable concerns that they might have about
animal rights extremism?
Meg Hillier: The situation is slightly more complex.
There are two points in my hon. Friend’s question. One
is about the total number of experiments. It is important
to say that we do not have a percentage cap on the
number of experiments that can take place, so more
science can equal more experiments. We make an effort
to ensure that most of those experiments are done on
the least sentient animals, and that wherever there is an
alternative, that has to be used.
On section 24, there was a review in 2004 prior to the
Freedom of Information Act coming in. Another review
was scheduled for 2006, but that was delayed because of
a court action. That finished in 2008, at which point the
draft European directive was published. It makes sense
to align ourselves with that draft European directive,
which borrows from the best practice in Britain, before
we look at transposition, hopefully in the summer of
next year.
Andrew Rosindell (Romford) (Con): But will the Minister
acknowledge that despite Labour’s promise to cut the
number of scientific procedures involving animals, levels
have risen to numbers not seen for up to 20 years? Until