East Belfast Alliance MLA, Chris Lyttle said: “We have now had over four years of continuous devolution in Northern Ireland, but we are still just copying and pasting policy from London on certain issues. We should be making our own position on the licencing and regulation of experiments on animals. We should be leaders and not just followers.
“Any policy that we put together should ensure that research results are shared amongst companies and organisation. This should cut down on the duplication of experiments where animals are needless harmed to find information that another organisation already knows.
“Even though there are no primates currently being used for experiments in Northern Ireland, I think it would send out a strong message that we are not supportive of primates being experimented upon anywhere.”
British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection Chief Executive Michelle Thew said: “We very much welcome this motion, and hope that the Northern Ireland Executive will want to use its devolved powers in this area to take a lead in reducing the use of animals in laboratories, in ways that the rest of the UK can follow.”
ENDS
Licensing and Regulation of Experiments on Animals
That this Assembly notes that it has been practice to adopt Home Office policy on the licensing and regulation of experiments on animals; and calls on the Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety to develop a separate policy on the matter to secure positive change for animals in laboratories.
[Mr C Lyttle]
[Ms A Lo]
[Mr K McCarthy]