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Home Office

Answer

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to his Answer of 20 January 2004, Official Report, column 1205W, on animal welfare, ref 147328, with reference to recommendation 11, which Government department is taking the lead on the systematic and visible search for 3Rs methods in toxicology; where that Department's progress can be viewed; and if he will make a statement. [155971] Caroline Flint: In its report, published in July 2002, the House of Lords Select Committee on Animals in Scientific Procedures recommended that the Government and the scientific community should engage in a systematic and visible search for methods involving the 3Rs--the replacement of animal use, reduction of the number of animals used and the refinement of the procedures involved to minimise suffering--in toxicology and that the Government should nominate one department to take the lead on this. In the Government's response to the Select committee's report, published in January 2003, we agreed that a systematic and visible effort is required. As a first step, the Home Office is currently leading a review of the scope for improving the application of the 3Rs and promoting research into alternatives through the Inter-Departmental Group on the 3Rs. Membership of the Inter-Departmental Group is drawn from the Home Office, the Department of Health, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Office of Science and Technology, the Health and Safety Executive and other agencies. The work of the group includes exploration of the case for a United Kingdom centre for research into the 3Rs, which was also recommended by the House of Lords Select Committee, a review of the implementation of the Inter-Departmental Data-Sharing Concordat, announced in August 2000, and the review and revision of the Guidelines on Regulatory Toxicology and Safety Evaluation Studies, published in February 2001, and the statement of principles concerning animal welfare endorsed by the Home Office and other regulatory authorities in 1999--Annex 1 to the Regulatory Toxicology Guidelines. I am currently considering the Inter-Departmental Group's further advice on the proposed United Kingdom centre for research into the 3Rs. I expect to receive the findings of the Inter-Departmental Group on the other two issues shortly and will then consider what further steps are required. Minutes of the meetings of the Inter-Departmental Group are published on the Home Office website at http:// www.homeoffice.gov.uk/docs2/interdept3rs.html.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

418 c893-4W;418 c909-10W; 155971

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Animal welfare Departmental responsibilities Animal experiments Poisons Research Select Committee on Animals in Scientific Procedures

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk