Asked by: Dan Norris (Labour - North East Somerset and Hanham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department's report entitled Annual Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals Great Britain 2023, published on 11 September 2024, what type of tests comprised the procedures conducted on dogs; and what steps she is taking to (a) reduce and (b) replace the use of dogs for such tests.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office)
69% of procedures of dogs in research are for the safety testing of potential new medicines to protect human health. The legal requirements for these tests are largely harmonised globally to ensure international acceptability of testing and prevent unnecessary duplication. Tests of procedures on dogs predict the safety of conducting the equivalent procedures on humans with up to 96% accuracy.
31% of procedures of dogs in research are for basic and translational research, primarily to discover and develop products to address human and animal diseases.
Research using dogs has been instrumental in the development of medications for use in treatments for cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and genetic disorders.
In March 2023 The National Centre for the 3Rs made its biggest award to date in a single investment (£1.6M) to develop a ‘Virtual Dog’. The project aims to exploit advances in computational approaches and machine learning to ultimately replace their use in chronic toxicity studies.
Where dogs have to be used in science, the Regulator assures that the principles of the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction and Refinement) are fully applied in all granted licences. These establishments are then subject to rigorous audit by Inspectors for compliance purposes.
Asked by: Dan Norris (Labour - North East Somerset and Hanham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she has taken to end the forced swim test in addition to holding discussions with (a) the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology and (b) UKRI.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office intends to completely eliminate the use of the forced swim test. This will require the validation of suitable appropriate alternatives.
Asked by: Dan Norris (Labour - North East Somerset and Hanham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to publish a timeline for ending the forced swim test.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office intends to completely eliminate the use of the forced swim test. This will require the validation of suitable appropriate alternatives.
Asked by: Dan Norris (Labour - North East Somerset and Hanham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will set a deadline for elimination of the forced swim test.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office intends to completely eliminate the use of the forced swim test. This will require the validation of suitable appropriate alternatives.
Asked by: Dan Norris (Labour - North East Somerset and Hanham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many active licences authorise use of the forced swim test.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office intends to completely eliminate the use of the forced swim test. This will require the validation of suitable appropriate alternatives.
Asked by: Dan Norris (Labour - North East Somerset and Hanham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to support the availability of bleed kits.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The use of bleed control kits is determined at the local level and the Government does not provide specific funding for bleed control kits.
Where decisions have been made by police forces to deploy bleed control kits, these would have been done as part of their operational decision making, including how to allocate resources based on their local knowledge and experience.
Asked by: Dan Norris (Labour - North East Somerset and Hanham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to make all wildlife crimes notifiable.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government recognises the importance of tackling wildlife crime, which is why, along with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Home Office directly funds the National Wildlife Crime Unit to help tackle these crimes.
There are no plans currently to make all wildlife crimes notifiable. Any non-notifiable wildlife crime reported to police can be investigated as Chief Constables have operational independence to tackle the crimes that matter most to their communities.