Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department's publication, Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals, Great Britain 2013, what assessment she has made of the reasons for the increase in the number of procedures involving genetically-modified and harmful mutant animals; and what steps her Department is taking to reduce the numbers of such procedures.
The increase in the number of procedures involving genetically-modified and harmful mutant animals is mainly in support of breeding for non-regulatory research. Such animals are only used for breeding with no subsequent procedures performed.
I have already asked officials to examine options to drive down the number of procedures for breeding genetically altered animals.