Animal Testing

Chris Murray Excerpts

Monday 27th April 2026 Westminster Hall

[Irene Campbell]

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. We have the potential to lead the way in this field; that is something we should definitely be striving towards. Through my role as chair of the APPG on phasing out animal experiments in medical research, I have met many scientists working in the animal-free research area, including at XCellR8, the UK’s leading animal-free testing laboratory. There is an untapped market in this area that is ready to grow, and we must invest in it. With the right Government support, the sector could more than double in size by 2030, creating high-skilled jobs and positioning the UK as a global leader in producing the next generation of scientists.

Licences for animal tests are granted in advance and in bulk. Surely the whole licensing system should be reviewed. Many laboratories do only the minimum checks and balances laid out in law, despite how they might talk about meeting the highest standards. When experiments are poorly designed or mistakes are made during the process, it is a waste of life and unnecessary suffering. There are many examples of that, which I am sure will be discussed today.

[Chris Murray (Edinburgh East and Musselburgh) (Lab)]

I commend my hon. Friend for her work in this field. She, like me, is a serious animal lover who has always stood up for animals. Many constituents have contacted me about this debate; their primary reason for doing so is the unnecessary suffering caused to animals in testing, with force-feeding and injections right up to the end of their lives. Does she agree that new technologies offer a way to achieve the goal that people want to see, which is more research, while also avoiding the unnecessary suffering that causes such concern to our constituents?

[Irene Campbell]

I thank my hon. Friend for his comments, and I agree with every point that has been raised.

On a positive note, it is most welcome that this Labour Government have published the “Replacing animals in science” strategy—something that we have never seen from previous Governments. The strategy brings a lot of good news, such as £75 million-worth of funding for the new UK Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods. It also refers to using validated alternative methods to reduce the use of non-human primates and dogs in dedicated cardiovascular safety studies by at least 50% by 2030, and to reduce the use of dogs and non-human primates in dedicated pharmacokinetics studies for human medicines by at least 35% by 2030. However, I am unsure how that will be validated, as the number of non-human primates and dogs used for those studies is unknown in the first instance. That creates a statistical challenge, and I would challenge whether those statistics are correct.

While it is good news to have a road map, we are not there yet. We need to ensure that the strategy is implemented with robust timelines and a clear road map, so that we can achieve our manifesto commitment of finally phasing out cruel animal testing. On 20 April this year, the US Food and Drug Administration announced that it had achieved key first-year goals in implementing its April 2025 road map to reducing animal testing in preclinical safety studies, which includes qualifying the first AI-based drug development tool and working to reduce or eliminate animal testing of drugs, having demonstrated safety through their use in humans in other countries.

It is key that the UK continues to be a world leader in animal welfare and to build on our successes such as the new strategy. However, we cannot fall behind other countries such as the US; we should seize this exciting opportunity to utilise groundbreaking new science while saying goodbye to dated and cruel testing. I look forward to the Minister’s response today, and to hearing from other Members.