Home » Bulletin 2003
UK to publish summaries of animal licences
The United Kingdom is proposing to publish a summary of every new project licence granted for animal research. In its response to the recent House of Lords Committee report on animal procedures, the UK's Home Office agreed that the lack of detailed public information about animal experimentation "contributes to a widespread lack of awareness of the regulatory system and the purposes for which animals are used and hinders informed debate on the use of animals in scientific research." Accordingly, it indicated that it would publish summaries of project licences setting out the salient features of the approved programmes of work.
"This is a major move towards greater openness in the UK," commented Dr Mark Matfield, Director of EBRA. "Traditionally, regulatory systems in the UK have tended to be less open. However, this change will make animal research in the UK the most open and transparent of any country in the world."
The published summaries would be anonymous, with further safeguards built into the system to protect personal and confidential information. The exact details of how this would work are to be the subject of a consultation between the government and the UK scientific community.
As part of the same response, the UK government also announced that it would be taking no immediate action about the existing confidentiality clause in the legislation governing animal experimentation. In the light of the recommendation by the House of Lords, it was widely expected that this clause would be repealed. However, the government cited the significant level of concern in the scientific community about the implications of repealing this clause and only announced that it would establish a working group with representatives of the scientific community to explore the options in this matter.