Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Annual statistics of scientific procedures on living animals, Great Britain 2025, published in July 2026, what assessment she has made of the reduction in procedures reported as severe in 2025; and what measures she is taking to secure further future reductions.

The Government welcomes the reduction in experimental procedures reported as severe in the 2025 published annual statistics. The proportion fell from 3.4% in 2024 to 1.3% in 2025, with the number of severe procedures decreasing from 48,380 to 17,593. Procedure numbers may increase or decrease from year to year due to changes in scientific and public health priorities, scientific innovation, research funding, regulatory requirements, and the application of the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction and Refinement).

The majority of this change was a large decrease seen in batch potency testing, falling from 27,323 severe procedures in 2024 to 521 in 2025. Batch potency testing is a form of quality control testing used to confirm that a batch of a medicine, vaccine or other biological product meets required standards before it is released for use.

All applications to test on animals must conform with all legal requirements set out in the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (ASPA). This includes applying the principles of the 3Rs: the replacement of animals wherever there is a suitable alternative available; the reduction of the number of animals used to the minimum possible; and the refinement of any techniques to reduce the harm suffered by the animals to the minimum.

Under ASPA, licences are subject to retrospective assessments if they involved procedures expected to cause severe harm to animals. These retrospective assessments must consider whether any lessons can be learned from the programme of work which may contribute to the further implementation of the principles of the 3Rs.

The Government’s Replacing animals in science strategy, published in November 2025 and backed by £75 million, contains measures to accelerate the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods. These measures, together with continuing regulatory scrutiny and independent advice from the Animals in Science Committee, will support further replacement and refinement of animal procedures.