Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether his Department plans to increase funding for the development of non-animal human-relevant testing methods.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology are considering funding into alternatives for animal testing as part of the Spending Review and cannot commit funding amounts in advance of this process.

The Government already invests £10m annually in the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) to accelerate the development and adoption of 3Rs approaches. The NC3Rs is currently undergoing a five year funding review that will determine future allocation of resources. A significant amount of research funding in the UK also goes to underpinning technologies that have the potential to deliver the 3Rs.