Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to statistical analysis by Cruelty Free International, published on 20 July 2021, what steps she is taking to reduce the 349 per cent increase in 2020 in the number of animal tests undertaken for industrial chemicals for use in household products.

The Home Office assures that, in every research proposal: animals are replaced with non-animal alternatives wherever possible; the number of animals are reduced to the minimum necessary to achieve the result sought; and that, for those animals which must be used, procedures are refined as much as possible to minimise their suffering.

The requirements for regulatory testing are set by regulatory bodies across Government. The Home Department regulates the use of animals in science through administration and enforcement of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (ASPA) which describes that the evaluation of a programme of work is favourable if it is required by law.