The Animal Research Act (1985) requires that all applications for accreditation, and animal supply licences are referred to the Panel for consideration. The Panel has established procedures to deal with the considerable workload this entails and regularly reviews and updates these procedures, to take account of changes in needs and resources.

There are two components in the assessment of applicants by the Panel:

• The consideration of a written application to determine whether the applicant is complying with a limited number of fundamental requirements of the legislation.
• The evaluation of the applicant on site inspection, when a much broader approach is taken.

The recommendations of the Panel are referred to the Director-General of NSW Department of Primary Industries, who has statutory authority for the issue of accreditation and licences and for imposing, altering or removing conditions of accreditation or licence.

Accreditation and licences are usually issued subject to standard conditions that a site inspection must be satisfactory and that the Director-General of NSW Department of Primary Industries must be advised of changes to the membership of the Animal Ethics Committee. There may also be other conditions imposed which relate specifically to the operations of each establishment.

Evaluation of written applications

The Panel has appointed an applications subcommittee to facilitate the assessment of applications for accreditation and animal supply licences. All applications are initially assessed by staff of the Animal Welfare Branch of NSW Department of Primary Industries.  The applications as well as the assessments and recommendations of the Animal Welfare Branch staff are considered by the applications subcommittee which then makes its recommendations to the Panel.

A small number of applications are viewed directly and considered by the full Panel. These include applications from individuals or organisations about which the Panel has particular concerns, or where the application is sufficiently different from the norm to raise policy implications.

The criteria against which the Panel assesses written applications are drawn from the legislation. Considerations include whether the Animal Ethics Committee is properly constituted, whether its procedures are adequate, whether it is meeting frequently enough to deal with the volume of work and whether it is conducting inspections of animals being used in projects and facilities which it supervises. The type and numbers of animals held and their accommodation are checked and likely problem areas are flagged for follow-up at site inspection. Similarly, numbers and qualifications of animal care staff are assessed for adequacy.

Monitoring of animal care and use is another important area.  Details of the type of monitoring undertaken must be provided. Questions on the source and destination of animals allow the Panel to double check compliance with the Act's provisions relating to animal supply.

Form A - Application of a corporation as an animal research establishment. (Select Form A on navigation menu).

	Complaints
	LD50 and lethality testing