Asked by: Seamus Logan (Scottish National Party - Aberdeenshire North and Moray East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 17 November 2025 to Question 906344 on Animal Experiments, whether she plans to enshrine the strategy targets into law.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government’s new strategy sets out our long-term vision for a world where the use of animals in science is eliminated in all but exceptional circumstances, achieved by creating a research and innovation system that drives the development and validation of alternative methods to using animals in science. The legal framework in the UK already requires that animals are only ever used in science where there are no validated alternatives available, and we are speeding up the development of alternative methods.
Asked by: Seamus Logan (Scottish National Party - Aberdeenshire North and Moray East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to the strategy Replacing animals in science: A strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods, published on 11 November 2025, if the preclinical translational models hub will be a physical institute; and what is the timetable to establish the translational models hub.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government’s strategy commits to create a preclinical translational models hub, supported by £30m of government funding, by the end of 2026. This will bring together data, AI, cell engineering, genomic technology and cutting-edge disease modelling capabilities to generate collaborative research at scale. This will create a pipeline of novel translational medicine models, with opportunities for partnerships across academia and industry. The hub is being developed by the Medical Research Council (MRC) in consultation with stakeholders and more details will be announced at a later date.
Asked by: Seamus Logan (Scottish National Party - Aberdeenshire North and Moray East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to the strategy Replacing animals in science: A strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods, published on 11 November 2025, if the £75 million funding announced to bring forward new testing methods is (i) additional funding or (ii) funded through reallocation from existing budgets.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government has committed to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods with £60 million of new funding from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology that has not been derived from reallocation of existing budgets. This includes £30 million to set up a translational hub and £30 million for the UK centre for the validation of alternative methods.
£11.4m has also been committed by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and Innovate UK’s core budgets as part of routine prioritisation activities, and £4.5m from the Wellcome Trust which is non-Government funding, to advance human in vitro model development.
Asked by: Seamus Logan (Scottish National Party - Aberdeenshire North and Moray East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to the strategy Replacing animals in science: A strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods, published on 11 November 2025, when the alternative method priorities list will be published; and if she will consult with animal welfare organisations in developing the alternative method priorities list.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government’s strategy to support replacing animals in science commits to publish biennially from 2026 a list of alternative-methods research and development priorities, coalescing UK scientists around these areas and incentivising partnerships between research organisations, CROs and industry. These priority areas will be developed collaboratively between academic institutions, industry trade associations, learned societies, the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research’s (NC3Rs) Regulatory Sciences Forum, the New Approaches to Chemical Risk Assessment in the Regulatory Space (NACRARs) Cross Government group and international partners.
Asked by: Seamus Logan (Scottish National Party - Aberdeenshire North and Moray East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent progress he has made in phasing out animal testing.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Labour Manifesto commits to “partner with scientists, industry, and civil society as we work towards the phasing out of animal testing”, which is a long-term goal.
On 11th November 2025 the government published “Replacing animals in science: A strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods” which outlines the steps we will take to achieve this. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/replacing-animals-in-science-strategy/replacing-animals-in-science-a-strategy-to-support-the-development-validation-and-uptake-of-alternative-methods
Asked by: Seamus Logan (Scottish National Party - Aberdeenshire North and Moray East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether she plans to bring forward legislative proposals to protect consumers from a reduction in service received from private services as part of the Digital ID scheme.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government will ensure there is no reduction in services from the digital ID scheme. Indeed, it should deliver exactly the opposite - with easier access to public and private services for more people. We remain committed to commencing and delivering the measures in Part 2 of the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, which underpin a framework of standards.
We will continue to engage with a range of organisations, including private sector digital verification services, over the coming weeks and months, including as part of the consultation to be launched by the end of this year, to ensure this commitment is delivered.
Asked by: Seamus Logan (Scottish National Party - Aberdeenshire North and Moray East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether her Department's financial planning anticipates that the costs of running a digital ID scheme would grow as public services become more interlinked.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government will launch a public consultation on the new digital ID by the end of the year. The eventual total cost and savings will depend on the design, build and delivery of the system, matters which will be included in the consultation.