asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many experiments were performed on live animals under the authority of the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876, and by how many licences in the last six months of 1976.

Figures are not collected for periods shorter than one year. In 1975, the last year for which figures are available, the total number of experiments was 5,379,084, which were performed by a total of 11,460 licences.