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1716800

registered interest
date	09/05/2024
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Animal Experiments
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to end the use of LD50 testing on animals.
tabling member constituency	Glasgow North
tabling member printed	Patrick Grady
uin	25499
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/05/2024 answer text <p>The UK supports work to develop New Approach Methodologies which can provide information on chemical hazards and risk assessment without the use of animals.</p><p>The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) is the UK regulatory authority for veterinary medicines. The VMD assesses applications submitted by the veterinary pharmaceutical industry in line with national and international regulations and guidance to ensure safe and effective veterinary medicines of good quality are marketed. These requirements may therefore necessitate animal testing either to develop and register new veterinary medicines or for routine product quality control, to ensure the continued quality, safety and efficacy batch to batch. Non-animal tests are not always available. The VMD is committed to phasing out the use of animals for testing purposes where possible, in accordance with the principles of 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement). Furthermore, the UK is a signatory to the European Pharmacopoeia (which sets minimum quality standards of medicines) and the European Convention for the Protection of Vertebrate Animals used for Experimental and Other Scientific Purposes. This commitment to the 3Rs is also enshrined in the UK’s Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 under which scientific procedures in animals are regulated.</p><p> </p><p>For veterinary medicines significant progress in non-animal testing has been made in recent years, including the possibility of replacing animals by in vitro suitable cell cultures in LD50-type testing methods, and the relevant regulatory quality standards and testing requirements have been revised accordingly for these specific medicines. Many Marketing Authorisation Holders for these specific medicines have already, and more recently, introduced these changes to their authorised medicines, which will reduce the number of animals used. Implementation of new tests for existing products can be a complicated process, requiring extensive validation and it is not always possible to replace all of the existing animal tests with in vitro non-animal replacements for each existing authorised product. The relevant UK Competent Authority for regulation of these medicines will continue to monitor the use of animals in these tests and to recommend use of non-animal tests where possible.</p><p><em> </em></p><p>The Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation (the hon. Member for Arundel and South Downs, Andrew Griffith) recently announced that the Government will publish a plan to accelerate the development, validation and uptake of technologies and methods to reduce reliance on the use of animals in science, which will be published in the summer. He also requested that we double our investment in research to achieve these approaches next year to £20 million across the system in 2024/25.</p><p>LD50 testing is not required for preclinical development of novel medicines. Quality control testing of some authorised medicines relies on LD50 testing to ensure each batch meets expected quality standards<em>.</em> UK regulators follow the principles of the 3Rs. Significant progress has been made on validating alternative methods which do not use animals, including the possibility of replacing mice by in vitro suitable cell cultures in LD50-type testing methods, and the relevant regulatory quality standards and testing requirements have been revised accordingly for these specific medicines.</p> answering member constituency Sherwood answering member printed Sir Mark Spencer question first answered 16/05/2024 17:05:17 answering member 4055 label Biography information for Sir Mark Spencer
tabling member	4432 label Biography information for Patrick Grady

1713029

registered interest
date	23/04/2024
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Animal Experiments
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make it his policy to replace the lethal dose 50 test with non-animal testing methods.
tabling member constituency	Chatham and Aylesford
tabling member printed	Dame Tracey Crouch
uin	23178
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2024 answer text <p>I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for West Derby on 24 April 2024, PQ <a href="https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2024-04-17/22419" target="_blank">22419</a>.</p> answering member constituency Sherwood answering member printed Sir Mark Spencer question first answered 29/04/2024 14:36:38 answering member 4055 label Biography information for Sir Mark Spencer
tabling member	3950 label Biography information for Dame Tracey Crouch

1701956

registered interest
date	17/04/2024
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Animal Experiments
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take steps to end the lethal dose 50% process for testing of substances on groups of animals; and if he will have discussions with the Secretary of State for the Home Department about increasing funding for non-animal methodologies in substance testing.
tabling member constituency	Liverpool, West Derby
tabling member printed	Ian Byrne
uin	22419
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/04/2024 answer text <p>The UK supports work to develop New Approach Methodologies which can provide information on chemical hazards and risk assessment without the use of animals.</p><p> </p><p>The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) is the UK regulatory authority for veterinary medicines. The VMD assesses applications submitted by the veterinary pharmaceutical industry in line with national and international regulations and guidance to ensure safe and effective veterinary medicines of good quality are marketed. These requirements may therefore necessitate animal testing either to develop and register new veterinary medicines or for routine product quality control, to ensure the continued quality, safety and efficacy batch to batch. Non-animal tests are not always available. The VMD is committed to phasing out the use of animals for testing purposes where possible, in accordance with the principles of 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement). Furthermore, the UK is a signatory to the European Pharmacopoeia (which sets minimum quality standards of medicines) and the European Convention for the Protection of Vertebrate Animals used for Experimental and Other Scientific Purposes. This commitment to the 3Rs is also enshrined in the UK’s Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 under which scientific procedures in animals are regulated.</p><p> </p><p>The Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation (the hon. Member for Arundel and South Downs, Andrew Griffith) recently announced that the Government will publish a plan to accelerate the development, validation and uptake of technologies and methods to reduce reliance on the use of animals in science, which will be published in the summer. He also requested that we double our investment in research to achieve these approaches next year to £20 million across the system in 2024/25.</p><p> </p><p>LD50 testing is not required for preclinical development of novel medicines. Some authorised medicines in the UK include (LD50) quality control tests which require the use of animals, conducted to ensure the quality, safety and efficacy of specific medicines. UK regulators follow the principles of the 3Rs. Significant progress has been made on validating alternative methods which do not use animals, including the possibility of replacing mice by in vitro suitable cell cultures in LD50-type testing methods, and the relevant regulatory quality standards and testing requirements have been revised accordingly for these specific medicines.</p> answering member constituency Sherwood answering member printed Sir Mark Spencer question first answered 24/04/2024 16:20:05 answering member 4055 label Biography information for Sir Mark Spencer
tabling member	4831 label Biography information for Ian Byrne

1700581

registered interest
date	12/04/2024
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Animal Experiments
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department is taking steps to help encourage companies to transition away from testing products on animals.
tabling member constituency	Watford
tabling member printed	Dean Russell
uin	21466
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/04/2024 answer text <p>Animal testing of chemical substances is permitted under UK REACH only as a measure of last resort; this principle is reinforced by the Environment Act 2021. Moreover, UK REACH states that test methods should be regularly reviewed with a view to reducing animal testing and it encourages the use of alternative methods. Testing and assessment of final products is not a part of UK REACH.</p><p> </p><p>The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) is the UK regulatory authority for veterinary medicinal products. The VMD assesses applications submitted by the veterinary pharmaceutical industry in line with national and international regulations and guidance to ensure safe and effective veterinary medicines of good quality are marketed. These requirements may therefore necessitate animal testing either to develop and register new veterinary medicines or for routine product quality control, to ensure the continued quality, safety and efficacy batch to batch. Non-animal tests are not always available and the VMD is committed to phasing out the use of animals for testing purposes where possible, in accordance with the principles of 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement). Furthermore, the UK is a signatory to the European Pharmacopoeia (which sets minimum quality standards of medicines) and the European Convention for the Protection of Vertebrate Animals used for Experimental and Other Scientific Purposes and this commitment to the 3Rs is also enshrined in the UK’s Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 under which scientific procedures in animals are regulated.</p><p> </p><p>The Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation (the hon. Member for Arundel and South Downs, Andrew Griffith) recently announced that the Government will publish a plan to accelerate the development, validation and uptake of technologies and methods to reduce reliance on the use of animals in science, which will be published in the summer. He also requested that we double our investment in research to achieve these approaches next year to £20 million across the system in 2024/25.</p> answering member constituency Sherwood answering member printed Sir Mark Spencer question first answered 24/04/2024 16:31:17 answering member 4055 label Biography information for Sir Mark Spencer
tabling member	4812 label Biography information for Dean Russell

1628042

registered interest
date	16/05/2023
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Animal Experiments
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make it her policy to end experimentation on animals in the UK.
tabling member constituency	Hornsey and Wood Green
tabling member printed	Catherine West
uin	185328
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/05/2023 answer text <p>The Home Office is responsible for animal testing. The Home Secretary made a statement which can be found <a href="https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fquestions-statements.parliament.uk%2Fwritten-statements%2Fdetail%2F2023-05-17%2Fhcws779&amp;data=05%7C01%7Cpqteam%40defra.gov.uk%7C2df650d594d74970268a08db57a2b11e%7C770a245002274c6290c74e38537f1102%7C0%7C0%7C638200128495594492%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=b0%2BHY%2FaPAcQ9EfHZdZ6Tv%2FyNAl%2Byw6QjwLp6pT15sJo%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank">here</a>.</p> answering member constituency Taunton Deane answering member printed Rebecca Pow question first answered 24/05/2023 16:08:48 answering member 4522 label Biography information for Rebecca Pow
tabling member	4523 label Biography information for Catherine West

1585748

registered interest
date	09/02/2023
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Animal Experiments
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department is taking steps to end animal testing in the UK.
tabling member constituency	Darlington
tabling member printed	Peter Gibson
uin	143870
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/02/2023 answer text <p>The Home Office Regulator will only grant licences to use animals 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 to animals is limited to that needed to achieve the scientific benefit.</p><p>The Government is supporting and accelerating advances in biomedical science and technologies to reduce reliance on the use of animals in research. UK Research and Innovation provides core funding for the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement, and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs), which works to drive the uptake of new methodologies, including alternatives to animals.</p><p>The Government is committed to the development of alternatives to using animals in scientific procedures and continues to actively support and fund the development and dissemination of the 3Rs (replacement, reduction and refinement) for the use of animals in scientific procedures. This is achieved through UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)’s funding of the National Centre for the 3Rs, which works nationally and internationally to drive the uptake of non-animal technologies, and through research into the development of alternatives by UKRI.</p> answering member constituency Taunton Deane answering member printed Rebecca Pow grouped question UIN 143871 question first answered 21/02/2023 14:54:53 answering member 4522 label Biography information for Rebecca Pow
tabling member	4754 label Biography information for Peter Gibson

1585749

registered interest
date	09/02/2023
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Animal Experiments
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made a recent assessment of whether animal testing is needed in the UK.
tabling member constituency	Darlington
tabling member printed	Peter Gibson
uin	143871
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/02/2023 answer text <p>The Home Office Regulator will only grant licences to use animals 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 to animals is limited to that needed to achieve the scientific benefit.</p><p>The Government is supporting and accelerating advances in biomedical science and technologies to reduce reliance on the use of animals in research. UK Research and Innovation provides core funding for the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement, and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs), which works to drive the uptake of new methodologies, including alternatives to animals.</p><p>The Government is committed to the development of alternatives to using animals in scientific procedures and continues to actively support and fund the development and dissemination of the 3Rs (replacement, reduction and refinement) for the use of animals in scientific procedures. This is achieved through UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)’s funding of the National Centre for the 3Rs, which works nationally and internationally to drive the uptake of non-animal technologies, and through research into the development of alternatives by UKRI.</p> answering member constituency Taunton Deane answering member printed Rebecca Pow grouped question UIN 143870 question first answered 21/02/2023 14:54:52 answering member 4522 label Biography information for Rebecca Pow
tabling member	4754 label Biography information for Peter Gibson

1564483

registered interest
date	06/01/2023
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Animal Experiments
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department is taking steps to help encourage companies to transition away from testing products on animals.
tabling member constituency	York Outer
tabling member printed	Julian Sturdy
uin	117573
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/01/2023 answer text <p>There has been significant progress in moving away from using animals to assess chemicals hazards, although there are some hazards where there is no immediate prospect of developing a non-animal alternative that could be used as the standard test method across the full range of chemicals. The UK contributes internationally to the development of non-animal alternatives for chemical testing through collaborative research programmes and work at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which develops internationally standardised tools and guidance to support companies and regulators in the use of non-animal methods. Defra also co-chairs a cross-Whitehall working group focused on the integration of non-animal methods into chemicals and wider risk assessment where they are equal to or offer improvements to accuracy, speed and efficiency. Our approach to regulation aligns with this direction of travel; REACH contains the last resort principle, which means that an animal study can only be carried out once a company has exhausted other ways of assessing the chemical's hazard.</p> answering member constituency Taunton Deane answering member printed Rebecca Pow question first answered 25/01/2023 14:20:01 answering member 4522 label Biography information for Rebecca Pow
tabling member	4079 label Biography information for Julian Sturdy

1460001

registered interest
date	25/04/2022
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Animal Experiments
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of any increase in testing chemical and pharmaceutical products on animals as a result of different REACH regimes in the UK and EU.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	158949
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/04/2022 answer text <p>The UK has been at the forefront of opposing animal tests where alternative approaches could be used. This is known as the &quot;last-resort principle&quot;, which have retained and enshrined in legislation through our landmark Environment Act.</p><p> </p><p>We are determined that there should be no need for any additional animal testing for a chemical that has already been registered, unless it is subject to further evaluation that shows the registration dossier is inadequate or there are still concerns about the hazards and risks of the chemical, especially to human health.</p><p> </p><p>The Health and Safety Executive, as the UK REACH Agency, will shortly be publishing its first report under Article 117(3) on the status of implementation and use of non-animal test methods and testing strategies under REACH. This report covers the first twelve months of UK REACH operation.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Bury St Edmunds answering member printed Jo Churchill question first answered 28/04/2022 11:20:08 answering member 4380 label Biography information for Jo Churchill
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1346804

registered interest
date	14/07/2021
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Animal Experiments
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the strategies of (a) his Department and (b) the Health and Safety Executive to increase the number of commercial service providers or research laboratories skilled in New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) data interpretation to deliver the Government’s commitment to reduce and replace animal testing for UK REACH.
tabling member constituency	East Lothian
tabling member printed	Kenny MacAskill
uin	33341
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/07/2021 answer text <p>UK REACH sets out what information is needed to satisfy each hazard endpoint. This includes specifying in some, but not all cases, what studies are required, including non-animal methods where they are available. New test methods will be included through amendments to the Test Methods Regulation after development and validation through the OECD. The responsibility then lies on registrants to commission any studies they need to fulfil their UK REACH information requirements, following Good Laboratory Practice.</p><p> </p><p>The responsibility to reduce and replace animal testing with alternative methods, including New Approach Methodologies (NAMs), lies with industry (within the confines of the appropriate legislation). We would anticipate that commercial service providers will develop and expand their services accordingly, as and when demand for these methods increases. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has an active role with a number of organisations to advise, influence and support those looking to develop and apply these alternative methods. Where animal studies are unavoidable the Home Office is responsible for licensing testing houses and individual procedures.</p><p> </p><p>HSE regulatory scientists, including toxicologists, are actively involved in monitoring and influencing the development of NAMs at both the domestic and international level which involves discussions and engagement with external experts in this field. HSE has recently appointed several independent experts who are familiar with NAMs to its UK REACH Independent Scientific Expert Pool to provide independent expert advice on the safety and regulation of chemicals and support its scientific opinions.</p> answering member constituency Taunton Deane answering member printed Rebecca Pow grouped question UIN 33342 question first answered 19/07/2021 13:52:37 answering member 4522 label Biography information for Rebecca Pow
tabling member	4772 label Biography information for Kenny MacAskill