Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of banning animal testing.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to supporting alternatives to animals in science and will publish a strategy to support their adoption. It is not yet possible to replace all animal use due to the complexity of biological systems, so the carefully regulated use of animals in science remains necessary for improving the understanding of how biological systems work, in the development of safe new medicines and in testing chemicals. The legal framework in the UK requires that animals are only ever used in science where there are no validated alternatives available.