Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the Lethal Dose 50 test on animals.

The UK continues to lead the way in seeking the international adoption of improved test methods that replace, reduce or refine the use of animals in scientific procedures.

Some authorised medicines in the UK include quality control tests which require the use of animals, conducted to ensure the quality, safety, and efficacy of specific medicines. These tests account for the LD50 cases still conducted.

Within the UK framework, regulators follow the principles of the 3Rs - to replace, reduce and refine the use of animals in tests. This is a legal requirement for all work conducted. However, it is not presently possible to replace all of the existing animal tests with non-animal replacements.

The Government 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.

Through the forthcoming alternatives strategy, the Government will seek to accelerate the validation of alternative methods and their uptake for regulatory decision making.