Asked by: Seamus Logan (Scottish National Party - Aberdeenshire North and Moray East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to the strategy Replacing animals in science: A strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods, published on 11 November 2025, when the alternative method priorities list will be published; and if she will consult with animal welfare organisations in developing the alternative method priorities list.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government’s strategy to support replacing animals in science commits to publish biennially from 2026 a list of alternative-methods research and development priorities, coalescing UK scientists around these areas and incentivising partnerships between research organisations, CROs and industry. These priority areas will be developed collaboratively between academic institutions, industry trade associations, learned societies, the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research’s (NC3Rs) Regulatory Sciences Forum, the New Approaches to Chemical Risk Assessment in the Regulatory Space (NACRARs) Cross Government group and international partners.
Asked by: Seamus Logan (Scottish National Party - Aberdeenshire North and Moray East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to the strategy Replacing animals in science: A strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods, published on 11 November 2025, if the £75 million funding announced to bring forward new testing methods is (i) additional funding or (ii) funded through reallocation from existing budgets.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government has committed to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods with £60 million of new funding from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology that has not been derived from reallocation of existing budgets. This includes £30 million to set up a translational hub and £30 million for the UK centre for the validation of alternative methods.
£11.4m has also been committed by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and Innovate UK’s core budgets as part of routine prioritisation activities, and £4.5m from the Wellcome Trust which is non-Government funding, to advance human in vitro model development.
Asked by: Seamus Logan (Scottish National Party - Aberdeenshire North and Moray East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to the strategy Replacing animals in science: A strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods, published on 11 November 2025, if the preclinical translational models hub will be a physical institute; and what is the timetable to establish the translational models hub.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government’s strategy commits to create a preclinical translational models hub, supported by £30m of government funding, by the end of 2026. This will bring together data, AI, cell engineering, genomic technology and cutting-edge disease modelling capabilities to generate collaborative research at scale. This will create a pipeline of novel translational medicine models, with opportunities for partnerships across academia and industry. The hub is being developed by the Medical Research Council (MRC) in consultation with stakeholders and more details will be announced at a later date.
Asked by: Seamus Logan (Scottish National Party - Aberdeenshire North and Moray East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to ensure the accuracy of data used by her Department, in the context of the letter entitled Statements on Water Quality by Professor Dame Carol Propper, Chair of the UK Statistics Authority published on 28 October 2025.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The accuracy of data and statistics are crucial for the development and monitoring of Defra policies, and crucial for ensuring public trust in those statistics. All Official Statistics in Defra are therefore produced in line with the UK Statistics Authority’s Code of Practice for Statistics.
Asked by: Seamus Logan (Scottish National Party - Aberdeenshire North and Moray East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the contribution by the Minister of 12 November 2025, col 285, on the Nolan Principles, what the evidence basis was for stating that the National Audit Office and Public Accounts Committee did not recommend the creation of an independent Office for the Whistleblower due to the risk of duplication.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The National Audit Office made four recommendations in the report following its investigation into whistleblowing in the Civil Service and the Public Accounts Committee made five recommendations in its subsequent report.
Neither report recommended setting up an independent Office of the Whistleblower, and I have since corrected Hansard to clarify that the reports themselves did not refer to a risk of duplication. It is the Government’s position that an independent Office of the Whistleblower would be duplicative.
The full text of the reports are available online.
https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/investigation-whistleblowing-civil-service.pdf
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5804/cmselect/cmpubacc/457/report.html
Asked by: Seamus Logan (Scottish National Party - Aberdeenshire North and Moray East)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what progress has been made on the Fuel Finder scheme; whether the launch date of late 2025 is still applicable; and what further work is being done by the Government to help reduce fuel prices.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
This Government is committed to ensuring drivers get a fair deal which is why we are implementing Fuel Finder as quickly as possible. Subject to parliamentary passage, we aim to launch Fuel Finder by the end of 2025.
In the meantime, a voluntary scheme is in place where fuel retailers are encouraged to share fuel prices until Fuel Finder gains a statutory footing. This is an important first step in increasing competitive pressure on retailers while legislation is finalised.
In addition, we have introduced statutory powers for the Competition and Markets Authority to monitor the market and identify the need further intervention
Asked by: Seamus Logan (Scottish National Party - Aberdeenshire North and Moray East)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what progress he has made on the carbon capture and storage project at St Fergus.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The government has announced its support for Acorn and is providing the development funding to advance its delivery. A final investment decision will be taken later this Parliament, subject to project readiness and affordability.
Since the Spending Review, we have worked closely with Acorn to understand what they need to keep them progressing towards FID and are confident we can continue collaborating on that.
We have also established a ministerial led forum, where government, regulators and industry representatives come together on a regular basis to drive forward momentum for the Scottish cluster.
Asked by: Seamus Logan (Scottish National Party - Aberdeenshire North and Moray East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent progress he has made in phasing out animal testing.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Labour Manifesto commits to “partner with scientists, industry, and civil society as we work towards the phasing out of animal testing”, which is a long-term goal.
On 11th November 2025 the government published “Replacing animals in science: A strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods” which outlines the steps we will take to achieve this. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/replacing-animals-in-science-strategy/replacing-animals-in-science-a-strategy-to-support-the-development-validation-and-uptake-of-alternative-methods
Asked by: Seamus Logan (Scottish National Party - Aberdeenshire North and Moray East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she plans to respond to correspondence of 5 September 2025 from the Hon Member for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East, case reference SL03537, on water quality in Scotland.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
A reply to the hon. Member is being prepared and will be issued as soon as possible.
Asked by: Seamus Logan (Scottish National Party - Aberdeenshire North and Moray East)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the letter entitled Statements on Water Quality issued by Professor Dame Carol Propper, Chair of the UK Statistics Authority, published on 28 October 2025.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra policies are based on the best available analysis and evidence, including official statistics. All Official Statistics in Defra are produced in line with the UK Statistics Authority’s Code of Practice for Statistics. Defra acknowledges the statement from the OSR and its findings.