Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to learn from international efforts to accelerate the replacement of animal experiments with human-relevant methods, including (a) the commitment made by the United States Environmental Protection Agency to stop funding and requesting tests on mammals by 2035 and (b) the collaborative work being undertaken in the Netherlands to develop strategies for research without using animals.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is committed to ensuring that the UK remains at the forefront of global efforts to improve the use and welfare of laboratory animals. The use of animals in research is carefully regulated and remains important in ensuring new medicines and treatments are safe. The government funds the development and dissemination of techniques that replace, reduce and refine the use of animals in research (the 3Rs).  This is achieved primarily through UKRI funding for the National Centre for the 3Rs (NC3Rs) which works nationally and internationally to drive the uptake of 3Rs technologies and ensure that advances in the 3Rs are reflected in policy, practice and regulations on animal research. Across the UK, the NC3Rs has invested £71 million in research through grants to universities.

We recognise the important signal that the commitment of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to phase out animal testing on mammals by 2035 sends. The UK through the NC3Rs has been effective at changing international regulations on chemical and pharmaceutical safety assessment. For example, the US Office of Pesticide Programs which is part of the US Environmental Protection Agency has recently changed its fish testing requirements for bioconcentration factor studies based on the NC3Rs work in this area.

The NC3RS CRACK IT Challenges, which funds R&D to solve major challenges relating to the use of animals, includes funded research teams in the EU with the NC3Rs committing £4.35 million to teams led by organisations in the Netherlands. The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development has launched Create2Solve, a funding call in its ‘More Knowledge with Fewer Animals’ programme, that is entirely based on the NC3Rs CRACK IT Challenges programme.