Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many research experiments his Department has performed on animals since May 2010; and for what purpose and on which types of animal such experiments have been performed.

The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) returns the numbers of procedures involving animals to the Home Office on an annual basis in accordance with UK legislation. Details of the Annual Dstl Returns to the Home Office from 2010 to 2013 are given in the table.

Dstl Porton Down conducts less than half of one per cent of the animal experimentation carried out in the UK.

Dstl is proud of the research undertaken by its staff and believes that the remit to provide safe and effective protective measures for the UK and its Armed Forces against the threat posed by chemical and biological weapons and enhance the treatment of conventional casualties on the battlefield, could not currently be achieved without the use of animals.

The main areas of use are as follows: regulatory testing; medical countermeasures to biological agents; medical countermeasures to chemical agents; provision of tissue; hazard assessment; treatment and decontamination of chemical agents; medical management and surgical care; detection and identification of biological weapons.

Each of the procedures has been undertaken in strict accordance with the terms of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. Dstl Porton Down is licensed to conduct research involving animals by the Home Office.