Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether her Department plans to take steps to introduce legislative proposals to (a) phase out animal testing and (b) support a full transition to non-animal approaches.

The government has no plans to introduce legislative proposals at this time. UK law already requires that animals are only used in science where there are no alternatives, where the number of animals used is the minimum needed to achieve the scientific benefit, and where the potential harm is limited to that needed to achieve the scientific benefit. The Government is committed to fully implementing the 3Rs, techniques that replace, reduce and refine the use of animals in research, including transitioning to non-animal methods, wherever possible.