Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of existing legacy licences for testing exclusive-use cosmetics ingredients on animals on animal welfare.

The Government is engaging with the relevant companies to urgently determine a way forward on legacy licences.

All establishments licensed to breed or supply animals, or to carry out regulated procedures on animals under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 in Great Britain are subject to the full requirements of the Act. This provides for a regulatory regimen of activities that protects animals in science including audits and inspections by the Animals in Science Regulation Unit to ensure compliance with the terms of their licences, the Code of Practice and with the Act.

Both announced and unannounced site visits are undertaken within a risk-based framework to assure compliance and inspect the welfare, health, and environment of animals at each establishment.