Official Statistics

Statistics of scientific procedures on living animals Great Britain 2002

This document contains the following information: Statistics of scientific procedures on living animals Great Britain 2002.

• From: Home Office
• Published: 18 July 2003

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Statistics of scientific procedures on living animals. Great Britain 2002 - Full Text

Ref: ISBN 9780101588621, Cm. 5886

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Details

This document contains the following information: This annual publication contains data on animal experimentation, subject to the provisions of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, for the year 2002. Under this Act, any scientific procedure carried out on any living vertebrate animal, and one species of octopus, which is likely to cause pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm is a regulated procedure requiring licence authority.

The data is structured to comply with EU requirements, although it is far more extensive than required by Europe. In 2002, there were 2.73 million scientific procedures conducted, an increase of 4.2 per cent on the previous year. Most experiments and tests were conducted on mice, rats and other rodents (84 per cent), with the remainder on birds (five per cent) and fish (seven per cent).

Dogs, cats, horses and non-human primates amounted to less than one per cent. Genetically modified animals were used in 26 per cent of cases. Non-toxicological procedures accounted for 82 per cent of procedures, with the main areas of use being for immunological studies and pharmaceutical R&D.

This Command Paper was laid before Parliament by a Government Minister by Command of Her Majesty. Command Papers are considered by the Government to be of interest to Parliament but are not required to be presented by legislation.

Published 18 July 2003