Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many active licences there are for the authorised use of the forced swim test.

The Home Office wrote to the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology and the UKRI in February 2024 to consider the recommendation to request further research into non-animal methods to replace the Forced Swim Test (FST).

The Home Office Regulator has since reviewed all licences authorising the use of the FST under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 and fully implemented the recommendations of the Animals in Science Committee.

The number of project licences that authorises the forced swim test in Great Britain has decreased from nine on the 1 March 2024, to a current total of only four licences. All of these licences are due to expire by 2028.

This Government has set a manifesto commitment to “partner with scientists, industry, and civil society as we work towards the phasing out of animal testing” and will publish a strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods to animal testing later this year. This strategy supports the current scientific direction on reducing and ultimately eliminating the use of the FST (www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0273230021001434).