Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of project licences applied for under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 were refused between 1 January and 1 September 2025.

Between 1 January 2021 to 1 January 2025, one application for a project licence under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 has been refused.

The Home Office does not routinely collect information on refused project licences as, due to the structure of the legal framework, this metric is not an indicator for the robustness of the regulatory regime.

The Government sets clear expectations of applications through publishing extensive guidance for the regulated sector. Before being submitted to the Regulator for assessment, the regulation requires that applications must be internally reviewed by an establishment’s Animal Welfare and Ethical Review Body and be signed off by the Establishment Licence Holder. Home Office Inspectors in the Regulator will only review applications from establishments that fulfil all requirements of the legislation. Applications received by the Regulator may be returned to the applicant for clarification and/or amendment before being re-assessed. Applicants may also amend or withdraw an application in response to feedback from the regulator. This system means that the number of refusals tends towards zero.