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UK Lords report on animal experimentation
The UK House of Lords Committee on Animal Procedures, which began its proceedings in March 2001, published its report in July. The scientific community has warmly welcomed the principal conclusions of this independent committee: that the use of animals in scientific experiments is morally acceptable and that there is a continuing need to use animals in medical research and toxicity testing. Dr Mark Matfield, Executive Director of RDS, said "This report is extremely sensible and realistic and should be used as the blueprint for future government policy about the regulation of animal research and testing."
The report focuses on the need to ensure the UK system of regulating animal research operates efficiently. Its recommendation, that the UK should aim to have the best system in the world for regulating animal experimentation, but not the most restrictive system, is almost identical to the policy of the RDS on this point. As an example of how this could be achieved, the committee calls for all for UK project licences to be much shorter. It points out that many UK licences are between 50 and 200 pages long, whilst the French system has licences that are about 10 pages long. It calls for UK licences to be reduced to the same size. The report contains several other recommendations aimed at reducing the bureaucracy and restrictions that delay animal research and force it abroad.
The Lords committee also has some strong recommendations about openness and transparency. Its desire to see complete openness about animal research is tempered by the acknowledgement that the animal rights extremists are a threat. As Dr Matfield said, "For as long as there are animal rights extremists who will harass, threaten and attack researchers, a certain level of confidentiality will still be necessary to protect our medical scientists. However, we do want more openness so the public can see that animals are used for important medical research and that we go to great lengths to look after the welfare of our laboratory animals."
The report also recommends that more effort should be put into the development and use of alternative methods of research and it calls for the establishment of a new centre for the development of alternatives. In this context, it uses the term 'alternatives' to cover the three Rs: Replacements, Reductions and Refinements. Dr Matfield put this in context: "Contrary to popular belief, scientists are developing and using non-animal alternatives all the time. These days, over 80% of medical research is done by the non-animal methods of research. We are unlikely to see the day when we can replace all animal experiments within the foreseeable future, but the Lords committee proposals to focus more effort on alternatives will be a very welcome step in that direction."