Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the report entitled, Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals Great Britain 2018, published in July 2019, for what reason there has been a 16 per cent increase in dog use since 2017; and what steps the Government is taking to (a) reduce and (b) replace the use of dogs in experiments.

With reference to the report entitled Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals Great Britain 2018, published in July 2019, the Home Office has not reviewed why there was a 16% increase in the use of dogs in 2018. The baseline numbers of animals used in scientific procedures are influenced by a range of factors. The Home Office assures that, in every research proposal: animals are replaced with non-animal alternatives wherever possible; the number of animals are reduced to the minimum necessary to achieve the result sought; and that, for those animals which must be used, procedures are refined as much as possible to minimise their suffering.