36 HUMANE TREATMENT OF ANIMALS USED IN RESEARCH 
before the film is made, agreed as part of the consideration for permission 
to make the film to observe such conditions respecting the use and 
exhibition of the film as the Secretary of State may have specified to the 
licensee in granting his consent as aforesaid. 
The object of Condition No. 9a is to ensure that adequate steps are 
taken to prevent films of animals undergoing experiment from being shown 
to non-scientific audiences. The Secretary of State’s consent under this 
condition may be sought in general terms and not only with reference to a 
particular film. Films showing only the apparatus used in the experiment, 
recording instruments, etc., are not subject to the terms of this condition. 
6. OTHER PROVISIONS OF THE ACT 
Section 6 of the Act states that any exhibition to the general public, 
whether admitted on payment of money or gratuitously, of experiments 
on living animals calculated to give pain shall be illegal. 
Under this section it is not permitted for visitors to see animals under 
experiment, but this does not, of course, apply to the licensee’s colleagues 
or assistants. Apart from this, only the Home Office Inspector has a 
legal right to see animals under experiment. 
Section 10 of the Act requires the Secretary of State to cause all 
registered places to be from time to time visited by inspectors for the 
purpose of securing compliance with the provisions of the Act. Inspectors 
are appointed for whole-time duties. The second Royal Commission 
recommended that they hold medical qualifications and this recommend- 
ation has always been followed by the Home Office. It was endorsed in 
1 95 1 by the Howitt Committee. It has on several occasions been suggested 
that at least one Inspector should be a veterinary surgeon, but so far the 
Home Office has not seen any reason to depart from the principle that all 
the Inspectors should be medically qualified. 
Section 21 of the Act states that prosecution under the Act against 
a licensed person shall not be instituted except with the assent in writing 
of the Secretary of State. It is doubtful if the Home Secretary has ever 
given this permission. The effect of this Section is to protect the licensee 
from irresponsible or malicious prosecutions. 
In practice, the power to revoke a licence or cancel a registration is 
such a powerful sanction that the need to prosecute is most unlikely 
to arise. 
Section 8 of the Act states that the Secretary of State may license 
any person whom he may think qualified to hold a licence to perform 
experiments under this Act. Graduate scientists are normally granted 
licences to do such experiments as their duties demand and their abilities 
allow. Licences may also be granted to technicians to carry out proce- 
dures, usually of a simple and repetitive nature, with which it would be 
unreasonable to expect a graduate scientist to occupy much of his time ; 
or to carry out simple procedures such as inoculations, in an emergency, 
in the absence of a graduate licensee. Licences granted to technicians 
may carry a condition excluding all but a narrow range of appropriate 
procedures, and requiring these to be done under the general supervision 
of a senior person. In certain circumstances Home Office may grant 
licences to senior students working for, say, honours degrees in order to 
enable them to carry out experiments that are a necessary part of their 
syllabus. Such licences will normally have a supervision condition attached. 
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