Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many licenses for animal testing of cosmetic ingredients have been issued since 2019 as a result of the European Chemicals Agency ruling; and to whom those licenses were issued.

Animal testing of cosmetics for consumer safety has been banned in the UK since 1998 and this remains in force.

On 17 May 2023 the Government announced it is going further by banning, with immediate effect, licences to test ingredients exclusively used in the production of cosmetics for the purposes of worker safety.

The Home Secretary has issued a Written Ministerial Statement, which can be found here: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2023-05-17/hcws779.

Since 2019, the Animals in Science Regulation Unit has granted seven project licences, or amendments to licences, that specifically authorise the testing on animals of chemicals for use as ingredients in cosmetics under the REACH regulations.

The Home Office does not publish details of licensed establishments.