Sammy Wilson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sammy Wilson on 2015-11-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what procedures are in place to ensure that animals sent from the UK for use in experiments in laboratories abroad were not subject to a greater degree of suffering than that which they would have experienced in UK laboratories.

Mike Penning

The Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 requires that before an animal can be released from the controls of the Act, in order to be sent to a laboratory abroad, I must be assured that:

• the animal’s state of health allows it to be sent to a new establishment;

• the animal poses no danger to public health, animal health or the environment;

• there is an adequate scheme in place for ensuring the socialisation of the animal upon being sent to new establishment; and,

• appropriate measures have been taken to safeguard the animal’s well-being when being sent to a new establishment.

The Home Office will seek reassurance that there are appropriate measures to safeguard the well-being of protected animals exported, within the context of their use in scientific procedures. Consent is only given for export where it is to a recognised scientific research establishment with a requirement for the specific live animals and sending tissue is not practicable.