Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of plant protection product legislation on trends in the level of animal testing on dogs in the last five years.

While we have not made an assessment of the potential impact of plant protection product legislation on trends in the level of animal testing, the UK Government is committed to maintaining a rigorous regulatory system which ensures that animal research and testing is carried out only where no practicable alternatives exist and under controls which keep suffering to a minimum.

The GB pesticides regulation (assimilated EU Regulation 1107/2009) requires that any testing on vertebrate animals is undertaken only where no other methods are available and that duplication of tests and studies on vertebrates must be avoided. It is an offence to carry out animal tests in contravention of the regulations. The HSE implement and enforce these requirements as the competent authority for the GB pesticide regulations, acting on behalf of the UK and Devolved Governments in Scotland and Wales.