Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 22 March 2022 to Question 121942, on Animal Experiments, of the 65,888 botulinum tests carried out, what product was being tested in those tests; and for what reason a validated cell-based assay was not used for those tests.

Pursuant to answer 121942 the substance being tested in 65,888 procedures was Botulinum Toxin.

Animal testing was authorised because there was not a validated non-animal alternative acceptable to the relevant regulator to meet these legal requirements.