Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an assessment of the feasibility of publishing non-sensitive inspection summaries for establishments licensed to breed animals for scientific procedures.

The Government has no plans to introduce the routine publication of audit or inspection summaries for licensed establishments.

The Government is committed to openness and transparency and publishes a range of information about animals in science regulation. This includes: annual statistics, non-technical summaries of all licensed projects, an annual regulator’s report that includes the outcomes of all non-compliance investigations, Guidance on the Operation of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act and the Code of Practice for the care and accommodation of animals used in science. Further, the Government publishes its responses to recommendations from the independent Animals in Science Committee on how the animals in science regulatory system can be continuously strengthened. This Government has also committed to the collection and publication of additional statistics on the breeding and genotyping of animals for scientific procedures which will be conducted in 2027.