Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in regard to the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986: Non-technical summaries for project licences granted January – March 2025 that require a retrospective assessment, published on 11 June, what assessment they have made of the suffering caused to macaque monkeys.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Each application to use animals in science is subject to a robust and rigorous harm benefit assessment by a trained Home Office Inspector whom is a member of either the veterinary or medical profession. This ensures that any harm that may be caused to the animals is justified by the likely expected benefits for humans, animals or the environment.
All applications must conform with all legal requirements set out in the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. This includes, applying the principles of the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction and Refinement); the replacement of animals with alternatives, the reduction of the number of animals used to the minimum possible and the refinement of any techniques to reduce the harm suffered by the animals to the minimum. The Home Office conducts a robust and rigorous harm benefit assessment which requires a detailed justification of the harms and which demonstrates the 3Rs have been fully considered. All licence holders have a responsibility to fully implement the 3Rs throughout the lifetime of a licence and demonstrate this requirement at audit.
Licence holders are required to complete retrospective assessments for licences if the protocols in the studies are using non-human primates, cats, dogs and equidae and all those involving procedures classified as severe. Retrospective assessments must consider whether any lessons can be learnt from the programme of work which may contribute to the further implementation of the principles of replacement, reduction and refinement.
The Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT), the Home Office and DEFRA are engaging with stakeholders to finalise a strategy to accelerate the development, validation and uptake of alternatives to animal testing which is scheduled for publication later this year.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in regard to the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986: Non-technical summaries for projects granted in 2025, January to March, what steps they are taking to end invasive brain research on non-human primates and other animals.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
All applications must conform with all legal requirements set out in the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. This includes, applying the principles of the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction and Refinement); the replacement of animals with alternatives, the reduction of the number of animals used to the minimum possible and the refinement of any techniques to reduce the harm suffered by the animals to the minimum.
The Home Office conducts a robust and rigorous harm benefit assessment which requires a detailed justification of the harms, and which demonstrates the 3Rs have been fully considered. All licence holders have a responsibility to fully implement the 3Rs throughout the lifetime of a licence and demonstrate this requirement at audit.
The Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT), the Home Office and DEFRA are engaging with stakeholders to finalise a strategy to accelerate the development, validation and uptake of alternatives to animal testing which is scheduled for publication later this year.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people moved to the UK through the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy in (1) 2022, (2) 2023, (3) 2024, and (4) 2025.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
It has been over four years since the ARAP was launched, and as of the 31 March 2025, has seen 21,316 principals and their family members already relocated to the UK.
Over 12,800 people have been successfully resettled under the ACRS since 2021 and over half of these arrivals have been children and a quarter women.
Data on the number of Eligible Persons resettled under ARAP and ACRS in the years 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 is available in the quarterly published immigration statistics on GOV.UK.
For a summary of the data, see the resettlement section of the How many people come to the UK via safe and legal (humanitarian) routes?’ chapter; for detailed data, see table Res_D02 of the asylum and resettlement data sets.
The above is the best available operational data, as of 31 March 2025.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people moved to the UK through the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme in (1) 2022, (2) 2023, (3) 2024, and (4) 2025.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
It has been over four years since the ARAP was launched, and as of the 31 March 2025, has seen 21,316 principals and their family members already relocated to the UK.
Over 12,800 people have been successfully resettled under the ACRS since 2021 and over half of these arrivals have been children and a quarter women.
Data on the number of Eligible Persons resettled under ARAP and ACRS in the years 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 is available in the quarterly published immigration statistics on GOV.UK.
For a summary of the data, see the resettlement section of the How many people come to the UK via safe and legal (humanitarian) routes?’ chapter; for detailed data, see table Res_D02 of the asylum and resettlement data sets.
The above is the best available operational data, as of 31 March 2025.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of how Afghans who are at risk due to their work with the UK or on women's rights can relocate to the UK.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Over 35,000 individuals have been relocated to the UK through our Afghan schemes, which were specifically designed to support those who worked with the UK government, assisted in UK efforts in Afghanistan, or stood up for values such as democracy and human rights. These schemes closed on the 1 July 2025.
The Immigration White paper, published on 12 May 2025, announced new measures on a wide range of issues including refugee sponsorship and resettlement, further details of which will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they are ensuring that Daesh members who return to the UK are investigated and prosecuted for involvement in international crimes, including sexual violence and genocide.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
It is a longstanding principle that the Government does not comment on existing or potential criminal investigations, but we will continue to do anything necessary to protect our national security.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the total projected cost of housing migrants and refugees in hotels and other accommodation for each year from 2025 to 2028.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
It remains our absolute commitment to end the use of hotels over time, as part of our reduction in overall asylum accommodation costs. The Home Office will continue to publish accurate end-of-year information on actual asylum expenditure in the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with reference to the Animals in Science Regulation Unit’s annual report 2023, published on 17 December 2024, what assessment they have made of the adequacy of sanctions issued in response to non-compliance incidents that resulted in the death of, or serious harm to, animals; and what consideration they have given to the use of licence revocation as a sanction.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Animals in Science Regulation Unit (ASRU) has published its compliance framework which explains how it identifies and investigates potential incidents of non-compliance and decides on appropriate and proportionate measures and remedies where non-compliance has been found to occur.
All cases of non-compliance are thoroughly investigated, and the outcomes are published in ASRU's annual report.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many personal, establishment and project licences issued under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 were revoked as a result of non-compliance incidents in each year from 2013 to 2023.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Regulator for the use of animals in science publishes an annual report that includes all non-compliance cases for personal, project and establishment licences and subsequent enforcement actions taken (see: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/animals-in-science-regulation-unit#annual-reports).
The Regulator does not compile separate data on revocations of licences as a result of non-compliances.
Asked by: Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many members of the Taliban have been allowed to travel to the UK since the takeover in August 2021, and what was the reason for their travel.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
We hold no record of any delegation of Taliban members travelling to the UK since August 2021.