Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department’s report Scientific procedures on living animals, Great Britain: 2024, published on 23 October 2025, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the increase in procedures involving sheep each year since 2021.

The Home Office regulates under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (ASPA) to assure compliance with the robust protections afforded to animals used in science and to administrate the licensing framework. Licences to test on animals are only granted where applicants comply with the principles of replacement, reduction and refinement. Animals can only be used where there is no non-animal alternative, numbers are minimised, and where the most refined methods of testing are used to minimise harms.

The majority of procedures involving sheep each year are conducted for basic research purposes. The trends in the number of animals and types of procedures carried out each year are influenced by a range of extraneous factors, for example requirements for research and testing which include products being brought to market.

The Government has published the strategy, "Replacing animals in science, a strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods". The strategy seeks to accelerate the development and validation of alternatives to animals in science in all but exceptional circumstances The strategy is available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/deleted-replacing-animals-in-science-strategy/replacing-animals-in-science-a-strategy-to-support-the-development-validation-and-uptake-of-alternative-methods