Animal Experiments

(asked on 9th February 2022) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the 2020 statistics on scientific procedures on living animals, what the purpose was of the (a) 46,918 uses of sheep, ( b) 10,396 uses of horses under routine production (blood-based products) and (c) 96,737 uses of domestic fowl under routine production (other products); and what assessment she has made of the availability of opportunities to replace these with non-animal based products.


Answered by
Rachel Maclean Portrait
Rachel Maclean
This question was answered on 25th February 2022

The Home Office publishes data on the use of animals in scientific procedures annually at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-of-scientific-procedures-on-living-animals.

The data collected from establishments for the production of the Annual Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals in Great Britain does not include information which would allow a further breakdown on the purposes of the use of sheep, horses, and domestic fowl in 2020 beyond that which is provided.

The Home Office Animals in Science Regulation Unit will only authorise applications where there is robust, legitimate scientific justification for the use of animals through the harm benefit analysis (HBA) process required under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986.

The UK’s rigorous regulatory system requires that no testing takes place if there is a validated non-animal alternative that would achieve the scientific outcomes sought. Licence proposals for research on animals for which there is no non-animal alternative must comply fully with the principles of the 3Rs: replacement, reduction and refinement.

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