asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in view of the fact that over 1,700,000 experiments on living animals are carried out every year, many of which without the use of anaesthetics, he will appoint one or more officially-trained inspectors of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals or other animal welfare societies as inspectors in his Department to assure public opinion on this matter.

No. Inspectors under the Cruelty to Animals Act, 1876, are selected by open competition in common with other civil servants and I could not agree to vary this method of recruitment in favour of officers of any particular society.