Home Office advisory notes on recording and reporting the actual severity reporting of regulated procedures

The UK Home Office issued Version 1 of its advisory notes on recording and reporting the actual severity reporting of regulated procedures in January 2014. These notes can be accessed here.

From January 2013 all regulated procedures carried out in the UK on animals under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (ASPA) must have the actual severity of the procedure recorded. 

At the end of the life of the animal, or when it is discharged from the controls of ASPA and no further scientific data are to be collected, the actual procedural impact can be determined and categorised. Actual severity must reflect the highest severity of the procedure, including any accumulation of lesser events, and not the severity at the end of the procedure or any estimate of „average‟ severity. For the statistical Returns of Procedures, the need to allocate an actual severity means that, from 2014, procedures in the UK had to be reported at their end and not at their commencement.