Public Order Act 2023 (Interference With Use or Operation of Key National Infrastructure) Regulations 2025

Viscount Camrose Excerpts

Wednesday 4th February 2026 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Stansgate (Lab)]

My Lords, I am pleased to follow my noble friend Lord Trees. I support the regulations. I should also like to thank the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett of Manor Castle, for having tabled this amendment because it enables the House to consider matters we do not often have the chance to hear about or discuss, and they are important. It raises difficult and sensitive issues because, as the House knows only too well, it refers in great part to the use of animals in research.

I doubt whether there is a single Member in this House who positively wants to see animal testing and research if it can be avoided, and the Government are rightly committed to ending it. I was pleased to hear the noble Lord, Lord Willetts, commend the Government for their current commitment to phase out this research and I, in turn, commend the noble Lord for being on the same trajectory when he was in government and for the support he has given. Reference has been made to the document published last year, the three Rs and so on.

For the time being animal research remains an essential component of scientific and biomedical research, and it helps ensure that potential new drugs, vaccines and medicines are safe and effective. My noble friend Lord Winston referred to some of the benefits of this research. As I understand it, certain anaesthetics have been made possible only because of animal research, and who among us has not benefited from anaesthetics? The research is fundamental to advancing our understanding of complex biological systems and disease mechanisms and it plays an important role in safeguarding human, animal and environmental health. As has been said by several noble Lords, it is critical to responding to health emergencies, including a future pandemic, which none of us wants to see but which remains one of the most significant threats to our national security. Scientific advances are being made by the life sciences community, but we must recognise that alternatives are not yet mature enough in complexity and application to replace whole-animal models. The UK must support a balanced research ecosystem that enables both high-quality animal studies and the responsible development of animal methods.

This brings me to the amendment. I do not have time to talk about some of the constitutional points made by the noble Lord, Lord Kerr, and the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett. I have some sympathy when I hear references to Henry VIII clauses and so on, but I do not think this is the subject of today’s debate. The problem, as I see it, is that certain parts of the life sciences sector are facing unacceptable and unsustainable pressure from the non-peaceful actions of campaigners, however understandable, that threaten the integrity of the sector. I have visited some of these research establishments and spoken to scientific researchers who have been assaulted and suffered intimidation, so I understand the point made by my noble friend and others. The systematic targeting of key strategic points in secondary and tertiary supply chains is having a serious effect, and the knock-on effects of disrupted research, hostile working environments and escalating security costs are already raising concerns in the life sciences sector about the future viability of research and development in the UK.

If this research were to leave the UK, so would investment, talent and our research infrastructure, which would permanently damage the UK’s sovereign capability to develop medicines and to respond to future health emergencies. It is against this background that I put it to your Lordships that there is a case for designating life sciences establishments as part of critical national infrastructure. Incidentally, in the context of the changing geopolitical world in which we now live, this House heard references not that long ago to the vital importance of undersea cables and space infrastructure. As has been pointed out, this research is also economically important to the UK: over 300,000 people are employed in the life sciences sector.

The right to peaceful protest should be protected. In my view, it is essential in a democracy. It is the non-peaceful systematic disrupting of supply chains by campaigners that could lead to an erosion of our national research, and the damage would be permanent. It would undermine the Government’s plans for growth in the life sciences sector, lead to adverse health outcomes for UK civilians, and leave the UK reliant on foreign assistance in future pandemic scenarios.

Finally, is this proposed legislation at odds with the Government’s alternative strategy? I do not think it is. It is important to realise that it is the same scientific community who use animal models who are the most heavily invested in driving alternatives forward. If the UK infrastructure supporting animal research collapses, that will collapse the same infrastructure that supports the development of alternatives. Not only does this pose a significant threat to public health outcomes, but it could damage the UK’s ambitions to be a leader in non-animal alternatives. For these reasons, I hope the House will think carefully about voting for this fatal amendment, however well-intentioned it may appear to some noble Lords to be.

[Viscount Camrose (Con)]

I had planned to make a number of points in this debate, but I am pleased to see that they have all been made for me in far more elegant style than I could have attained myself. I will emphasise one point that has not had quite enough attention yet, and that is that this country is a world leader in animal welfare in the life sciences and in the development of products from the life sciences.

If protesters succeed in their aims, they will not stop animal research; they will export it overseas. The countries to which they will export it may indeed be able to match our research excellence, but they could not, I suspect, match our commitment to animal welfare. For this reason particularly, but for a great many other reasons noble Lords have raised, I oppose the amendment.

[Lord Sentamu (CB)]

My Lords, my contribution will be very brief. It is the job of His Majesty’s Government to introduce regulations and laws. The Minister is today presenting to us draft regulations which were laid before the House on 27 November 2025, some months ago, for approval.

The point for me is that this is the 45th report from the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee. It has scrutinised and gone through it all. What has it decided in the end? That it is expedient. It has no negative comment about it. Either we trust our Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, or we do not. As a House, we make that committee. That is the battle.

In the end, I have to support the approval of these regulations because I trust our Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee. Where it has not found an SI expedient—I remember my history of your Lordships’ House from 2005—it has sent it back, but it has not done this now. We should follow our processes and procedures and go ahead and approve it.