Ben Obese-Jecty
Main Page: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)Department Debates - View all Ben Obese-Jecty's debates with the Cabinet Office
(1 week, 2 days ago)
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Chris Bryant
I did not know that my hon. Friend had taken over the APPG; it is a good thing that it exists. We will work very closely with the APPG. Whether I am the right Minister or whether there is a more intelligent Minister—or a more charming one, perhaps—who might be of more assistance to her, I will make sure that she gets all the Ministers that she needs.
Ben Obese-Jecty (Huntingdon) (Con)
In my constituency of Huntingdon, I have two sites that form a key component of pre-clinical animal testing. Labcorp, where the testing takes place, and Marshall BioResources, where the beagle puppies are bred and then tested on. Almost none survive the testing process. While I do not support animal testing, I recognise that it is currently a necessary element of the pre-clinical testing process and cannot be phased out until non-animal methods have sufficient scope. The Minister for Science, Research and Innovation wrote to me in September outlining the Government’s approach to phasing out animal testing, but will the Government publish a timeline of what tests will be phased out via the work of the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research and when?
Chris Bryant
I cannot provide the hon. Gentleman with that timeline now. We are working at pace trying to put together a practicable policy and a strategy which, as I said, we will publish by the end of the year. He makes a perfectly good point about the complexities. It will not be easy for the MHRA to meet its international commitments and our manifesto commitments. We are happy to work with the sector as well as with other Departments to deliver this, and I am happy to have a conversation with him if that would help.