Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he has made an assessment of the merits of establishing a dedicated body, similar to the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM), to (a) oversee and (b) accelerate the (i) validation and (ii) acceptance of non-animal methods for (A) regulatory and (B) scientific use.

The Labour Manifesto includes a commitment to “partner with scientists, industry, and civil society as we work towards the phasing out of animal testing”. The Government will publish a strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods in basic, applied, translational and regulatory research and testing later this year. As part of this, we continually monitor international developments and bodies such as ECVAM and are in discussion with our overseas colleagues as to how we can work together on this matter.