Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help protect dogs from (a) cosmetic and (b) medical testing; and if she will make it her policy to take legislative steps to prohibit the use of dogs for (i) cosmetic and (ii) medical testing.

Animal testing of cosmetics to permit their marketing for consumer use has been banned in the UK since 1998. It is illegal to test cosmetic products or their ingredients on animals if that testing is to meet the requirements of the Cosmetics Regulations 2009. Chemicals legislation to protect human health and the environment may require animal testing as a last resort, where there are no alternatives, under the UK REACH Regulations. However, this does not include finished cosmetic products.

Animal testing is required by global medicines regulators to protect human health and safety. Many products which would not be safe or effective in humans are detected through animal testing thus avoiding harm to humans.

The Government is committed to assuring that those animals used in science, including dogs, are protected. The legal framework in the UK requires that animals are only ever used in scientific procedures where there are no alternatives, where the number of animals used is the minimum needed to achieve the scientific benefit, and where the potential harm to animals is limited to that needed to achieve the scientific benefit.