Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what the evidential basis is that MBR Acres is critical to pandemic preparedness.

The UK government’s approach to pandemic preparedness is contained in the Health and Care Research and Development Framework for Pandemic Preparedness, Prevention and Response which includes the need for a resilient pre-clinical research infrastructure. The necessity for the use of animals in pre-clinical research, where no validated alternative exists, is a product of the Human Medicine Regulations 2012. MBR Acres is the only UK supplier of research dogs, which are currently essential for pre-clinical safety testing, and as such is a critical part of national pre-clinical research infrastructure.