Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish the security cooperation agreements concluded with Saudi Arabia in March 2023.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
We do not plan to publish any agreements.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the national statistics entitled Statistics of scientific procedures on living animals, Great Britain: 2021, published by her Department on 30 June 2022, under which regulations the 59,586 procedures on mice were carried out as set out in the column entitled Regulatory use: Quality control Batch potency testing; and how many and what proportion of these involved a (a) LD50 and (b) lethal dose test.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Home Office licences programmes of work using animals in science, including testing to satisfy regulatory requirements set out in legislation.
Establishments must only conduct work for limited permissible purposes, according to the terms of their licences, which the Home Office assures through audit and inspection processes.
The Home Office publishes extensive data on the use of animals in science in the annual national statistics. The statistics do not include data broken down by the specific tests requested.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the national statistics entitled Statistics of scientific procedures on living animals, Great Britain: 2021, published by her Department on 30 June 2022, under which regulations the 11,163 lethal dose procedures on mice were carried out as set out in the column entitled Regulatory Use: toxicity and other safety testing including pharmacology acute and sub-toxicity testing methods: LD50 and LC50 purposes.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Home Office licences programmes of work using animals in science, including testing to satisfy regulatory requirements set out in legislation.
Establishments must only conduct work for limited permissible purposes, according to the terms of their licences, which the Home Office assures through audit and inspection processes.
The Home Office publishes extensive data on the use of animals in science in the annual national statistics. The statistics do not include data broken down by the specific tests requested.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the national statistics entitled Statistics of scientific procedures on living animals, Great Britain: 2021, published by her Department on 30 June 2022, under which regulations the 12,496 procedures on mice were carried out as set out in the column entitled Regulatory use: Quality control Batch safety testing; and how many and what proportion of these involved a (a) LD50 and (b) lethal dose test.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Home Office licences programmes of work using animals in science, including testing to satisfy regulatory requirements set out in legislation.
Establishments must only conduct work for limited permissible purposes, according to the terms of their licences, which the Home Office assures through audit and inspection processes.
The Home Office publishes extensive data on the use of animals in science in the annual national statistics. The statistics do not include data broken down by the specific tests requested.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many bank suspense accounts frozen on suspicion of financial misconduct, where the account was initially opened more than six years ago, are currently open in the UK.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Under the Economic Crime Plan, Government is investigating policy options for unlocking suspected criminal funds held within suspended accounts to tackle economic crime. However, the requested information is not held by Government.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress her Department has made on progressing Afghanistan-related cases in the context of the UK co-hosting the United Nation’s pledging summit on Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis.
Answered by Kevin Foster
On 14 April, the chairs of the UN Afghanistan Pledging Summit published a statement on the outcome of the conference, which was held in March 2022 and was co-hosted by the UK, Germany and Qatar. Highlights include pledges of $2.4bn in support of the continued humanitarian response and a commitment to tailoring humanitarian aid in 2022 to specifically address the distinct needs of women and girls in Afghanistan. The statement can be viewed in its entirety at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/un-afghanistan-pledging-summit-chairs-statement-14-april-2022
The Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) commenced on 6 January 2022, and will provide up to 20,000 eligible women, children and others at risk with a safe and legal route to resettle in the UK.
We will exceed our initial aim to resettle 5,000 through ACRS in the first year. 6,500 people have already been brought to safety in the UK during and after the evacuation and who are eligible for the ACRS.
We are working at pace to prepare to receive the first referrals under Pathways 2 and 3 as soon as we can, so that individuals affected by the events in Afghanistan can safely arrive in the UK and rebuild their lives.
The Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) provides relocation and assistance to Locally Employed Staff directly employed by, or worked closely alongside, Her Majesty’s Government and assessed to be at serious risk of threat to life in Afghanistan with over 7,000 people have been relocated to the UK so far. The ARAP remains open, and the Home Office is continuing to work with the Ministry of Defence and the FCDO to relocate those who are eligible under ARAP.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress her Department has made in progressing Afghanistan related cases, in the context of the UK co-hosting the United Nation’s pledging summit on Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis.
Answered by Kevin Foster
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 1 December 2021 to Question 80330 on Animal Experiments: Scotland, if she will provide the estimated and specific breakdown of costs for providing extracted data for Scotland from the Annual Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals, Great Britain 2020, published by her Department on 15 July 2021.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Extracting data for Scotland could only be done at disproportionate cost, so we are unable to provide the data originally requested.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 1 December 2021 to Question 80330 on Animal Experiments: Scotland, what plans her Department has to (a) increase transparency of statistical data in future publications and (b) publish specific data for (i) England, (ii) Scotland and (iii) Wales in future publications of the Annual Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Statistics on regulated scientific procedures performed using living animals under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (ASPA) are published annually. The next publication, covering data for 2021, is provisionally scheduled for release in July 2022. The UK Statistics Authority has designated these statistics as National Statistics, signifying compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics.
We are committed to regularly reviewing our National Statistics outputs to ensure they are relevant to users and to identify ongoing opportunities for innovation and improvement.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 1 December 2021 to Question 80331 on Animal Experiments, what plans her Department has to (a) record future deaths of animals at licensed testing facilities and (b) ensure that unnecessary animal deaths at licensed testing facilities are investigated.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Home Office does not hold information on, nor has plans to record future deaths of animals that occur at licensed scientific testing facilities.
Licences issued under the authority of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 require notification to the Home Office if the severity limits and/or controls described in the licence appear to have been, or are likely to be breached. This includes the unexpected deaths of animals. Notifications are reviewed by the Regulator and cases are further investigated where required to evaluate compliance with licence authorities.