Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether, following the UK’s exit from the EU, it remains a policy priority of the Government to achieve the goal of full replacement of procedures on live animals for scientific and educational purposes as soon as it is scientifically possible to do so, in line with (a) recital (10) of Directive 2010/63/EU on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes and (b) the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (as amended); and if she will make a statement.

The UK’s rigorous regulatory system requires that no animal testing takes place if there is a validated non-animal alternative that would achieve the scientific outcomes sought. Prior to any work being authorised, project 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.