Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of beagles being bred for use in laboratory experiments in the UK; and what steps she is taking to phase out animal experiments.

No estimate has been made of the number of beagles being bred for use in laboratory experiments in the UK. Most dogs used for research purposes are for the toxicity and safety testing, including potential new medicines, based on internationally-set requirements for testing in non-rodent mammals, usually dogs or monkeys, to protect human health. The level of breeding is largely determined by the level of safety testing required.

The Government is clear that the use of animals in science is justified, for the benefits it brings to human, animal and environmental health and safety.

The Government is committed to assuring that those animals used in science are protected. The legal framework in the UK requires that animals are only ever used in scientific procedures where there are no alternatives, where the number of animals used is the minimum needed to achieve the scientific benefit, and where the potential harm to animals is limited to that needed to achieve the scientific benefit.

Government policy is to actively support and fund the development and dissemination of techniques that Replace, Reduce and Refine the use of animals in research (the 3Rs). This is achieved through funding UKRI who both fund the National Centre for the 3Rs and fund research through Innovate UK, the Medical Research Council and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council into the development of alternatives.