Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the enforcement of Section 2A of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986.

The Home Office maintains a rigorous approach to enforcing Section 2A of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (ASPA), which embeds the statutory principles of replacement, reduction and refinement (the 3Rs). All applications proposing the use of animals undergo a robust assessment to ensure that non-animal alternatives have been fully explored, that any animal use is fully justified and that potential harms are minimised. Compliance with the 3Rs is actively monitored by the Animals in Science Regulation Unit through a programme of audit and enforcement activity.

All establishments which test on animals are required to establish an Animal Welfare and Ethical Review Body (AWERB). AWERBs have a statutory responsibility under ASPA to advise on the application of the 3Rs within establishments. The Home Office has commissioned the Animals in Science Committee for advice on strengthening the effectiveness of AWERBs.

In November 2025, the Government published “Replacing animals in science: a strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods”. This strategy commits to delivery of recommendations published in the ‘Rawle Report’, which involve strengthening Home Office processes for assuring full implementation of the 3Rs. The report is available here: https://nc3rs.org.uk/sites/default/files/2023-02/Rawle%20project%20report.pdf.