Wednesday, May 22, 2024

UK
Inmates dig through cell wall with plastic cutlery

Curtis Lancaster,

BBC News

Getty Images
HMP Winchester, built between 1846 and 1850, was found to have "crumbling walls and roofs"

Inmates in Winchester Prison dug through cell walls using plastic cutlery, a report has found.

The Independent Monitoring Board's (IMB) national annual report for 2023 looked at the treatment and conditions for those detained.

Victorian establishments like Winchester, were labelled "particularly dire" with crumbling walls, which were able to be damaged by inmates.

The Ministry of Justice said it was "delivering an additional 20,000 modern prison places" across the country.

HMP Winchester, mostly built in the mid-19th Century, was found to have "crumbling walls and roofs all over the prison" which lead to "leaks, flooding, and slip hazards".

The report added: "There were several occasions throughout the year where prisoners were able to damage and attempt to dig through cell walls, on one occasion through the wall to the landing, using simple implements such as plastic cutlery."

The IMB said it was difficult to keep such buildings "functional and decent".

HMP Winchester IMB
Victorian establishments like Winchester Prison, were labelled "particularly dire"

The IMB added that Winchester's Care and Separation unit's were routinely full, with prisoners segregated in cellular confinement on the wings instead.

The report also found there were problems with the release of prisoners from Winchester.

It noted 40 - 50% of men were being release from the prison without accommodation, leaving them homeless.

The Winchester findings were part of the IMB's report into conditions in prisons across England and Wales.

It concluded that "population pressures and overcrowding caused tremendous strain on every area of prison life, which was compounded by widespread staff shortages".

Getty Images
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said it was "delivering an additional 20,000 modern prison places"

The Ministry of Justice said: “We are delivering an additional 20,000 modern prison places – including opening two new prisons in two years – to help rehabilitate offenders and keep our streets safe."

It said a £100m "security crackdown" in prisons included measures such as X-ray body scanners and specialist sniffer dogs.

Follow BBC South on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk or via WhatsApp on 0808 100 2240.

Decaying jail buildings undermine progress - report

World leaders still aren’t taking the ‘extreme risks’ of AI seriously

22May 2024
Text Thom Waite

DAZED

Joaquin Phoenix in Her (2013)Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

As trust in tech leaders like Sam Altman wanes, governments have agreed to establish a global network of AI safety institutes, but experts aren’t convinced that it’s enough to stop the tech from going rogue

In November last year, world leaders, prominent businesspeople, and (for some reason) King Charles gathered at the UK’s Bletchley Park for the world’s first AI safety summit, aiming to highlight the enormous risks of the most advanced AI models, offering a counterpoint to their huge projected benefits. The result was an unusual display of international unity, with the EU, China, and the US joining forces to sign the “world’s first” Bletchley Declaration. Six months later, however, things aren’t looking much better, according to the experts.

On Monday (May 20), 25 academics and experts in the field – including the likes of Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, two “godfathers of AI”, and Yuval Noah Harari – warned that governments have failed to adequately face up to the risks of powerful AI so far. “Although researchers have warned of extreme risks from AI, there is a lack of consensus about how to manage them,” they say. “AI safety research is lagging. Present governance initiatives lack the mechanisms and institutions to prevent misuse and recklessness and barely address autonomous systems.”

These doom-laden claims come in a paper titled Managing extreme AI risks amid rapid progress, published the day before a two-day summit in Seoul, which began May 21. In the South Korean capital, world leaders have been tasked with following up on last year’s safety commitments, and building upon these pretty vague foundations to ensure that the technology doesn’t prove too disastrous for humankind via the disruption of economies, elections, relationships and – on the more fantastical end of the scale – the very continuation of the human race.

The most concrete result of the Seoul summit is the joint signing of the Seoul Declaration by the EU and 10 other countries, including the UK, US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the Republic of Singapore. This declaration commits to developing “human-centric, trustworthy and responsible” AI via a network of global AI safety institutes and research programmes. The UK, which founded the first of these institutes last year, simultaneously pledged £8.5 million in grants for new AI safety research. Just for context: ChatGPT developer OpenAI has been valued at $80 billion or more. Lol!

The renewed focus on AI’s risks comes amid rising scepticism toward leaders in the industry, most notably OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, who has long positioned himself as a prominent figure in the safety conversation. Last week, Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike, the co-leads of the company’s “Superalignment” team – the bit responsible for reining in the tech’s more existential threats – both resigned from their posts, with subsequent reports saying that they never received the resources they needed for their work. On top of that, Altman has been “embarrassed” by the revelation of manipulative exit agreements that encouraged outgoing employees to sign NDAs (just the latest cause for concern when it comes to OpenAI’s lack of transparency).

In even more public news, Scarlett Johansson recently accused OpenAI of stealing her voice for its latest chatbot iteration. Having declined to voice the chatbot when she was approached by OpenAI last year, the actor was apparently “shocked, angered and in disbelief” by its unveiling of a voice that sounded “eerily similar” to hers with GPT-4o. The company has since agreed to pull the voice, which it claims was never supposed to be an imitation of Johansson’s – even though Altman tweeted “her” straight after the launch, in an obvious reference to the 2013 film where Johansson voices an AI-powered virtual assistant.

Ok, so a dispute over a multimillionaire actor’s voice might not inspire too much sympathy. Many have pointed out, however, that the controversy raises broader suspicions about Altman’s – and other AI leaders’ – tendency to bypass rules and best practices, and reignites concerns about the manipulative personalities at the top of the game. Are these the people we want designing our potential successors? Maybe not!

All of that said, OpenAI has joined other tech giants including Google, Amazon, Meta, and Elon Musk’s xAI in signing a new round of voluntary commitments about AI safety to coincide with this week’s Seoul summit. These commitments include the publication of frameworks to measure the risks of their frontier AI models, and a promise to “not to develop or deploy a model at all” if it poses severe risks that can’t be mitigated.

The question is: will the actions of the countries and companies involved in the summit actually reflect their words, or will they continue to seek a competitive advantage via loopholes and a lack of transparency? When the next AI safety summit is held in France, six months down the line, will the experts be able to celebrate any real advancements, or will we still be speeding “recklessly” toward a world where AI spirals out of control, beyond the limits of human intervention? Based on the last six months, things aren’t looking too promising.

OpenAI changes exit contracts so employees can leave without having equity revoked

By Pascale Davies

Published on 20/05/2024 -

A clause in exit paperwork meant they could have their equity in OpenAI taken away if they did not sign NDAs.

ChatGPT maker OpenAI is changing its exit contract, which could have taken away ex-employees’ vested equity in the company if they criticised their former employer.

Vox News reported the contract terms and non-disclosure agreement (NDA) paperwork on Friday. It said it had viewed the contract in question and reported that employees could “lose all vested equity they earned during their time at the company, which is likely worth millions of dollars” if they didn’t sign a nondisclosure and non-disparagement agreement.

A day later, the company CEO Sam Altman confirmed that the contract existed but that OpenAI had never "clawed back anyone's vested equity".

"This is on me and one of the few times I've been genuinely embarrassed running OpenAI; I did not know this was happening and I should have," Altman wrote in a post on X.

He said that the team was in the process of fixing the paperwork and former employees could contact Altman if they were worried.

The news follows two high-profile company exits, including the co-founder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, who did not say why he left OpenAI.

The superalignment team's co-lead Jan Leike also resigned last week and originally held back on the reason why.

A day later he said it was because OpenAI’s "safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products".

One former employee, Daniel Kokotajlo, quit OpenAI in April and posted publicly that he left due to "losing confidence that [the company] would behave responsibly around the time of AGI".

He implied publicly on a blog that he gave up what would have been a large sum of money to leave without signing anything.

AI Seoul Summit: World leaders agree to launch network of safety institutes

By Anna Desmarais

Published on 22/05/2024 -

The agreement came during a virtual session of the AI Safety Summit hosted jointly by South Korea and the UK.

Ten countries and the European Union will be developing more artificial intelligence (AI) safety institutes to align research on machine learning standards and testing.

The international network was agreed during the AI Safety Summit in Seoul, South Korea during which world leaders met virtually.

It will bring together scientists from publicly-backed institutions, like the UK’s AI Safety Institute to share information about AI models' risks, capabilities and limitations.

The group of institutions will also monitor “specific AI safety incidents” when they occur.

“AI is a hugely exciting technology…but to get the upside, we must ensure it’s safe,” UK prime minister Rishi Sunak said in a press release.

“That’s why I’m delighted we have got an agreement today for a network of AI Safety Institutes”.

Which countries are behind the new safety institutes?

Signatories to this new AI Safety Institute network include the EU, France, Germany, Italy, the UK, the United States, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Australia and Canada.

The UK claims to have created the world’s first AI Safety Institute last November with an initial investment of £100 million (€117.4 million).

Since then, other countries like the United States, Japan and Singapore have launched their own.

The mission of the UK’s AI Safety Institute is to “minimise surprise to the UK and humanity from rapid and unexpected advances in AI,” a November 2023 press release from the UK government reads.

The EU, now having passed the EU AI Act, is getting ready to launch its AI office. The European Commission previously told Euronews they would hire the new office’s head once the law has been fully approved.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said at last year’s AI Safety Summit that the AI office would and should have a “global vocation” so that it could “cooperate with similar entities around the world”.

Leaders also signed up to the wider Seoul Declaration during this conference which declares the importance of “enhanced international cooperation” to develop human-centric, trustworthy AI.

The first day of the AI Safety Summit this week saw 16 of the world’s biggest tech companies, including Open AI, Mistral, Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Microsoft and IBM agree to a set of safety commitments.

The list includes setting thresholds for when the risks of AI become too high and being transparent about them. A statement from the UK government, which co-hosted the event, called it a “historic first.”

France will host the next summit on safe AI use.

London Defence Conference: Defence and security will be priorities, say Labour

Labour shadow ministers have said they remain committed to defence and security and there will be “no change in support for Ukraine” if they are elected to government.

David Lammy and John Healey at the London Defence Conference

The Rt Hon John Healey, Shadow Defence Secretary and the Rt Hon David Lammy, Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, addressed the London Defence Conference at King’s College London.

Mr Healey said: “There will be a general election in Britain. There may be a change of government in Britain. But there will be no change in Britain’s resolve to stand with Ukraine, to confront Russian aggression or to pursue Putin for his war crimes.”

He added: “We have not done enough to make clear defence of the UK starts in Ukraine.”

Mr Healey spoke of a recent visit to Ukraine he conducted with Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy MP, and the importance of that cross department collaborating and recognising that the war in Ukraine is not just a military issue but affects diplomacy, trade and industry.

“[The public] are not raising security and foreign affairs [as an issue]. They’re raising the cost of living, they’re raising the cost of the NHS, they’re raising crime in their neighborhoods.
Rt Hon Mr David Lammy, Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs

He added: “They do understand however that the cost of living, particularly, is driven by foreign policy and world events.

"A foreign office under [Labour] has to be centred on growth and economic security.”

Earlier at the conference, Mr Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Defence, spoke about the need for countries to increase defence to 2.5 percent. Mr Healey said that despite announcing the raise in 2022, the Government has not included or costed that figure in any of their budgets or spending statements released since Russia invaded Ukraine.

Mr Healey said: “People judge governments on what they do, not just what they say. [...] The last time this country spent 2.5% of GDP on defence was in 2010 with Labour, no one has matched that since.”

The panel was hosted by Mark Urban, Diplomatic Editor of BBC Newsnight at the second day of the London Defence Conference, hosted at King's.

22 May 2024

Day 2: The London Defence Conference 2024: Deterrence, collaboration and resilience

Security experts, political leaders, academics and commentators came together today to explore the role of deterrence and how to strengthen defence and security in an increasingly dangerous world.

Grant Shapps speaking at the London Defence Conference 2024

Hosted by King's College London, the conference discussed what we can learn from history, nuclear deterrence, national resilience and the role of conventional forces.

In a keynote address Rt Hon Grant Shapps, MP, the UK Secretary of State for Defence, warned that “lethal aid” is flowing from China to Russia and into Ukraine.

Today I can reveal that we have evidence that Russia and China are collaborating on combat equipment for use in Ukraine. As we saw from the Putin state visit to Beijing and the 64% growth in trade between Russia and China since the full scale in invasion, they’re covering each other’s backs.
Rt Hon Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Defence

He added: "I think it is a significant development and we should be concerned about that because in the earlier days of this war China would present itself as acting as a moderating influence on Putin.”

Mr Shapps reaffirmed the Government’s plan to increase defence spending from 2 to 2.5% of GDP and took aim at countries who aren’t committing as much to defence

The conference also heard from the Rt Hon John Healey, Shadow Secretary of State for Defence, and the Rt Hon David Lammy, Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, who said Labour remains committed to defence and security and there will be “no change in support for Ukraine” if they are elected to government.

There will be a General Election in Britain. There may be a change of government in Britain. But there will be no change in Britain’s resolve to stand with Ukraine, to confront Russian aggression or to pursue Putin for his war crimes.
John Healey, Shadow Defence Secretary

David Lammy and John Healey at the London Defence Conference resized for web

Deputy Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Oliver Dowden told the conference that a new series of measures will prepare the nation for crises such as a cyber attacks, solar flares, power outages and another pandemic.

“We are working ahead of time to equip the whole of society to prepare for and even prevent the next shock while delivering a clear and robust plan that is so vital to our national defences. The new measures I have set out today give us yet more tools in our armoury.
Oliver Dowden, Deputy Prime Minister

As well as encouraging households to ensure they have non-perishable foods, bottles of water and torches in case of an emergency, the Prime Minister announced a new website, training for MPs and a new programme to model what would happen in another pandemic to make the UK more resilient.

Oliver Dowden speaking at the London Defence Conference 2024

In his opening remarks, King’s Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Professor Shitij Kapur, said King’s is home to one of the largest group of scholars dedicated to security and war studies.

He praised the 'Future Leaders' first day of the conference, held on 21 May, which brought together students and young professionals and he highlighted that King’s was founded almost 200 years ago by the then Prime Minister the Duke of Wellington.

I think he would be very proud to know 200 years on the institution that he founded still has a central role in matters of security.
Professor Shitij Kapur, Vice-Chancellor and President, King's College London

Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman, Professor Niall Ferguson and Professor Margaret Macmillan explored what we can learn from history about the art of deterrence and also whether Russia’s invasion of Ukraine showed a failure of deterrence.

In a panel on ‘Threats and Who needs Deterring’, Dr Jade McGlynn of the Department of War Studies, said there needs to be greater focus on what is at stake should Russia achieve some sort of victory in Ukraine and how if this were to happen, the costs to the British people would be enormous.

On the role of nuclear weapons as a deterrent in light of the Ukraine war, Professor Sir David Omand, a visiting professor in the Department of War Studies, said: "It is vital that Putin continues to believe that an armed attack on a member of NATO would set in train events he can’t control."

In a discussion on conventional deterrence, Air Chief Marshall Lord Peach, Brigadier General David Doss, Lt General Andrew Harrison and Jack Watling were asked about the upcoming General Election. They said it was essential for defence to remain a priority and for alignment across government on spending.

The annual London Defence Conference, hosted at Bush House by King’s School of Security Studies, continues tomorrow.

WALES

Mine restoration money ‘lost in the ether’

22 May 2024

The Ffos Y Fran Land Reclamation Scheme In Merthyr Tydfil. Picture From Google Maps.

Chris Haines ICNN Senedd reporter

Plans to restore the last opencast mine in the UK could be significantly curtailed due to a shortfall of tens of millions of pounds, a committee heard.

MSs on the Senedd’s climate change committee grilled representatives of Merthyr Tydfil council, which initially declined to give oral evidence about restoration of Ffos y Fran.

David Cross, principal planning officer at the council, told the committee the cost of restoration has been estimated at between £75m and £125m.

“The reality of the situation is that we have only got £15m,” he said, cautioning that restoration plans will be “quite different to what we originally agreed”.

Llŷr Gruffydd raised concerns about the site operator, Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd (MSW), earmarking £15m for site restoration while company accounts reference nearly £75m.

‘Guarantee’

The Plaid Cymru MS, who chairs the committee, asked “What’s this £74.5m sitting in a bank account doing then if they don’t believe it’s for that purpose?”

Mr Cross replied: “Whether that money’s there or not, that’s for MSW.”

Geraint Morgan, a council solicitor, said initial planning permission was granted by the then-Assembly in 2005, with a requirement for a £15m bond and a £15m guarantee.

Extinction Rebellion protestors display a banner at Ffos-y-frân opencast mine in Merthyr Tydfil

Mr Morgan explained that when Miller Argent sold the site in 2015, MSW agreed to pay £625,000 a quarter into an escrow account.

Pressed on where the £15m guarantee has gone, Mr Morgan said: “I can’t actually answer that. A parent company guarantee is only worth what a company is worth.”

‘Grim’

He said latest accounts show about £104,000 in Merthyr Holdings Ltd, the parent company.

“That’s more grim than I thought,” said Janet Finch-Saunders, the Tory MS for Aberconwy, raising concerns about the £15m “which seems to be somewhere in the ether”.

Stressing that restoration is a matter for the developer, he told the committee it was always understood that £15m would not necessarily be sufficient to restore the site.

He said the company failed to make payments and the council had to take high court action, but the developer has now met the £15m escrow requirement.

Mr Cross told the committee an annual assessment of liability is not in place despite 2016 Coal Authority best practice guidelines because permission was granted long before.

‘Challenging’

He warned: “If you go through enforcement and you may be even successful – if there’s no funds in the pot to actually deliver the restoration, it becomes a difficult challenge.”

Ellis Cooper, chief executive, described the relationship with the developer as challenging, saying a revised restoration scheme is set to be brought forward by November.

Asked about concerns the operator could abandon the site or declare insolvency, Mr Morgan said the site could ultimately be owned by the Welsh Government or Crown Estate.

He told the meeting on May 22 that the council is renegotiating terms for use of the escrow money to allow some restoration in accordance with a 2007 approved strategy.

He said the deal will be drafted so the money is released after work has been carried out.

‘Mess’

Geraint Thomas, leader of the independent-controlled council, said the fly in the ointment of restoration plans was the British coal industry being privatised in 1994.

Cllr Thomas, who worked on the site in the ’90s, suggested the council has been left in a mess without the required funds for restoration.

Asked about a strained relationship with residents, the Cyfarthfa ward councillor claimed: “If you ask the majority of people in Merthyr Tydfil, they’d be quite happy.”

He said the financial benefits of the site have been imperative to keeping many sports clubs and community organisations running over the past 10 to 12 years.

Pressed on who is ultimately responsible for what has happened at Ffos y Fran, Mr Cross pointed the finger firmly at the developer.

Majority of Scots now identify as non-religious

Those who consider themselves Muslim increased from 1.45 per cent to 2.2 per cent over 10 years

22 May, 2024

By: Pramod Thomas

A majority of people in Scotland now say they have no religion, according to details of the latest census published on Tuesday (21), in a first for any UK nation.

The National Records of Scotland said more than half (51.1 per cent) of respondents in the 2022 census stated they had “no religion” — a jump from 36.7 per cent in 2011.

In England and Wales, “no religion” was the second-most common response, increasing from one in four (25.2 per cent) in the 2011 census to just over a third (37.2 per cent) in 2021.

Northern Ireland saw a smaller increase in the response, from 10.1 per cent in 2011 to 17.4 per cent 10 years later.

Data collection for the 2021 UK census was delayed for a year in Scotland because of Covid restrictions in place at the time.

The latest figures reflect increasing secularisation among once-dominant Christian denominations in both Scotland and the wider UK, and declining church attendances.

In Scotland, one in five (20.4 per cent) considered themselves part of the Protestant Church of Scotland, down from just under a third a decade earlier.

Roman Catholics saw their numbers ebb from 15.9 per cent to 13.3 per cent, with a similar fall in “other Christian” categories.

In contrast, those who consider themselves Muslim increased from 1.45 per cent to 2.2 per cent over 10 years.

The last UK census was the first time that less than half of the population of England and Wales described themselves as “Christian”.

“Christian” was still the most common response but fell from 59.3 per cent to 46.2 per cent over a decade — the equivalent of 33.3 million to 27.5 million people.

In the same period, respondents answering “Muslim” increased from 4.9 per cent to 6.5 per cent or 2.7 million to 3.9 million, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The number of Catholics living in Northern Ireland in 2021 exceeded the total of Protestants and other Christian denominations for the first time.

The British-run province was created in 1921 as a Protestant-majority enclave.

(AFP)

Citi fined $78M by British regulators for high-frequency trading, risk control rule breaches

London's Canary Wharf from where Citi operates its European investment banking business from offices in its building in Canada Square.

File photo by Hugo Philpott/UPI |

May 22 (UPI) -- U.S. investment bank Citi was hit with $78.4 million in fines by British regulators Wednesday for failings in its trading systems and controls including a notorious "fat-finger" blunder in which a trader accidentally executed a $1.4 billion short that momentarily sent European stock markets into free-fall.

The Prudential Regulation Authority fined Citigroup Global Markets $43.1 million for weaknesses in its trading systems and controls between April 2018 and May 2022 which it failed to adequately remedy despite repeated nudges from the regulator, the Bank of England said in a news release.

The investment banking and trading division of the firm received a 30% discount from what would have been a $61.6 million fine for cooperating and agreeing to resolve the matter.

However, Citi received a further $35.3 million fine from the Financial Conduct Authority following a parallel investigation into "related matters."

"Firms involved in trading must have effective controls in place in order to manage the risks involved. CGML failed to meet the standards we expect in this area, resulting in today's fine," said PRA deputy governor and CEO Sam Woods.

The PRA said it expected firms to fix issues flagged up to them promptly and completely and Citi's failure to do so meant "certain of the issues crystallized into trading incidents."

The most significant, the PRA said, was the so-called fat-fingered error on May 2, 2022, when an inexperienced trader incorrectly input what was supposed to be a routine multi-million dollar sell order.

CGML's internal circuit breakers blocked more than half of the $444 billion order the trader was attempting to place and the trader managed to cancel most of the rest "resulting in $1.4 billion inadvertently being executed on European exchanges."

"Deficiencies in CGML's trading controls contributed to this incident, in particular the absence of certain preventative hard blocks and the inappropriate calibration of other controls," the PRA said.

A Citi spokesman said that the bank was happy to conclude an old matter which it said was due to "an individual error that was identified and corrected within minutes."

"We immediately took steps to strengthen our systems and controls, and remain committed to ensuring full regulatory compliance." the spokesperson told CNBC.

The PRA had charged that algorithmic trading at the firm was implemented improperly, finding CGML had breached rules requiring it to ensure that appropriate thresholds and limits were applied to automated systems that buy and sell using pre-set parameters.

It also broke regulations requiring algorithmic trading systems be fully tested and monitored to ensure they comply with PRA rules.

CGML was additionally found to have breached rules requiring firms to conduct business with "due skill, care and diligence," have effective risk strategies and risk management systems and organize and control its affairs "responsibly and effectively."

The PRA stressed that following the May 2022 trading incident, CGML has undertaken remediation work and taken steps to improve and strengthen its trading controls.

Continued sharp rise in UK cases of non-compliance with laws protecting animals in laboratories

Cruelty Free International

Animal protection NGO Cruelty Free International is again calling on the government to ensure proper enforcement of the law protecting animals used in experiments in the UK. The latest UK Home Office report shows that non-compliance with the law continues. Abandonment of the previous inspection programme, and roll out of a new audit approach in 2021, has not stopped failings in the care of animals in laboratories.

The annual report for 2022 has been published by the Home Office’s Animals in Science Regulation Unit (ASRU), the regulator which oversees the use of animals in research and testing in the United Kingdom according to the Animal (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (ASPA). ASPA is the UK law which permits the use of animals in scientific research and controls which animals can be used and for what purpose, and requires that animals are only used in research when there are no alternatives, only the minimum number of animals needed are used, and only the minimum possible suffering or lasting harm is caused.

The report reveals that in 2022, non-compliance with ASPA requirements continued with 175 cases of non-compliance across 51 different UK establishments, a sharp increase of 43% compared to the 122 cases recorded for 2021.

Under the new audit scheme, the Home Office performed audits of only 56 establishments, with only 4 “full systems audits” conducted. The report does not explain how many non-compliance cases were revealed by audits as opposed to being self-reported. Since the ASRU report relies heavily on self-reporting, it seems very likely that many incidents remain unreported and unidentified. For comparison1, in 2019 ASRU undertook 470 inspections of establishments where scientific work on animals was conducted. Moreover, the ASRU employed a total of just 25 people at the end of 2022, working an equivalent of 19.7 full-time employees which is three-and-a-half less than the 23.2 full-time equivalent employees in 2020.

We do not believe that the Home Office’s new audit approach and staffing levels are sufficient for the true picture of animals’ lives in laboratories to be revealed. Nevertheless, the ASRU reports still show that animals in laboratories are being failed. We calculate a shocking 420% increase in failures to provide adequate care for animals between 2018 and 2022.

Women's Issues Have Seen A "Sea Change" In Parliamentary Attention
By Zoe Crowther
17 May

The 2022 report reveals that a total of 16,062 animals were involved in the 175 cases of non-compliance, including a horse, two dogs, 53 non-human primates, hundreds of rats and thousands each of chickens, fish and mice. 1,063 of those animals suffered “adverse welfare outcomes”. 78 cases were related to the failure to provide appropriate care for animals, including food, water and suitable facilities. The other 97 were failures to adhere to licensing guidelines.

There were many examples of animals being left without food or water for up to four days, leading in some cases to the deaths and euthanasia of animals involved. In other instances, non-human primates were temporarily deprived of water without authorisation, while another was not given the minimum daily fluid requirement. Other recorded incidents include: multiple cases of failing or faulty equipment leading to hundreds of deaths, including by drowning and poor ventilation; the deaths of mouse pups as a result of them being removed from their mother without authority or the mother being wrongly killed; 710 mice being exposed to continuous light for up to 12 days. 35 animals, including a dog and 17 mice, were allowed to live after the usual point for humane euthanasia had been passed; and four pregnant mice were unintentionally used in procedures.

ASRU has six options with which to deal with cases of non-compliance, from a letter of advice from an Inspector, to a prosecution of the most extreme cases which could lead to a fine or prison sentence. However, in 70% of cases (123 of 175) in 2022, the only course of action was to issue advice from an Inspector. Just two cases resulted in re-training of staff, following an unauthorised second dose being given to animals in error and where a procedure was performed by a technician without the required licence. Re-training is described as necessary “where a licensee has demonstrated that they do not have the expected level of knowledge of their legal responsibilities or to undertake procedures” but neither of these cases were recognised as having caused harm or death to the animals involved.

Dr Emma Grange, Cruelty Free International’s Director of Science and Regulatory Affairs, said: “Yet again, the cases in the ASRU report illustrate a long-running systemic failure to protect animals and a lack of care for or interest in the wellbeing of animals used in laboratories. The very least these animals, which are ultimately condemned to suffer and die in experiments, deserve is consideration for their welfare.

“We are renewing our call on the regulator to properly enforce the law – allowing animals to die through pure negligence should result in more serious consequences than a letter of advice. Furthermore, the suffering detailed in this latest report underlines the need to enforce the principle of testing on animals only as a last resort, and for accelerated transition to animal-free approaches in science.

Page 25 of Animals in Science Regulation Unit Annual reports 2019 to 2021 - Revised (publishing.service.gov.uk)

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment