My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Identity (Meg Hillier) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

I wish to respond to the publication Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals—Great Britain—2007, which was presented as a House of Commons Paper (933) today. Copies have been placed in the House Library.

This annual statistical report meets the requirement in the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 to inform Parliament about the licensed use of animals for experimental or other scientific purposes. It also forms the basis for meeting periodic reporting requirements at EU level. A hard copy is available and supplementary information with additional tables is also available on the Home Office website.

The statistical report shows an overall increase over the previous year of 6 per cent in the number of procedures undertaken. The total number of procedures was 3.2 million, an increase of 189,500 over the previous year. There has now been a relatively small increase for the sixth year running and this is the highest total since 1992. A number of factors, such as investment in research and development and strategic funding priorities, determine the overall level of scientific procedures.

Non-toxicological procedures accounted for about 87 per cent of the procedures carried out. These included fundamental research in human and veterinary medicine to improve understanding of disease mechanisms and possible therapeutic options, and development of vaccines.

Most toxicological studies (78 per cent) were for the safety and efficacy testing of new drugs and medicines and the majority of all procedures (87 per cent) were performed in order to carry out legal or statutory requirements.

In keeping with previous years, those procedures that used mice or rats (or other rodents) were the great majority, at 83 per cent. Those using fish amounted to 10 per cent and those using birds amounted to 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 about 1.73 million regulated procedures, up 86,200 (5 per cent) on 2006 figures. This increase is associated with mice used in fundamental studies. However, this is an overall decrease of 2.27 million (23 per cent) since 1995. Genetically modified animals (nearly all rodents) were used in 1.15 million regulated procedures, representing 36 per cent of all procedures for 2007 (compared with 34 per cent in 2006 and 8 per cent in 1995).

Advances in the opportunities to use genetically altered animals for new areas of biomedical research mean that the trend of increased production and use of genetically altered animals has continued. They allow a more precise and often less invasive study of physiological studies and disease mechanisms than was previously possible. Most of the animals concerned are mice, which appear and live as normal. Many are used only in breeding programmes. In fact, just over a third of all procedures in 2007 were accounted for by breeding procedures (37 per cent) conducted in 2007 for the production of harmful mutant and genetically modified animals. Mainly mice (93 per cent) and fish (6 per cent) were used in these procedures.

I should point out in relation to the statistics that the Home Office, as regulatory authority under the 1986 Act, caps the overall amount of animal research and testing that takes place, the imperative being to authorise work that is justified while minimising the numbers of animals used and any animal suffering that may be caused.

Therefore, 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.

The statistical report and supplementary information can be found at: http://scienceandresearch.homeoffice. gov.uk/animal-research/publications-and-reference/statistics/?version=1.

I am also pleased to inform the House that I have today placed in the Library the annual report of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Inspectorate for the year 2007. This is the fourth annual report published by the inspectorate.

Publication of the inspectorate report honours a commitment given by the Government in response to a recommendation of the House of Lords Select Committee on Animals in Scientific Procedures in July 2002 that more information should be made available about the work of the inspectorate.

The report explains the inspectorate’s role in assessing, and in advising the Secretary of State on, applications for personal and project licences and for certificates of designation under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. It also provides details of the inspection system through which compliance with licence authorities granted under the 1986 Act is monitored, and about visiting patterns and practice and the number of visits carried out during the year.

This report explains the important role of inspectors in gathering and transmitting information on good practice and provides examples of the many events and initiatives to which the inspectorate made significant contributions during the year. In addition, this year’s report contains special features on the generation, breeding and maintenance of genetically altered mice and on the planning and construction of buildings in which scientific work involving animals is to be conducted.

I commend the inspectorate’s report to the attention of Members.