Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Annual statistics of scientific procedures on living animals, Great Britain 2025, published in July 2026, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the 6 per cent increase in regulatory procedures for the routine production of blood-based products compared with 2024; what factors account for the increased use of beagles, rats, sheep, cattle, rhesus monkeys, cynomolgus monkeys and pigs in those procedures; and whether her Department has identified the reasons for those increases.

The number and type of regulated procedures carried out can vary from year to year, reflecting factors such as scientific and public health priorities, scientific innovation, research funding, regulatory requirements, and the availability of suitable non-animal alternatives.

The Government’s Replacing Animals in Science strategy, backed by £75 million in funding, sets out measures to accelerate the development, validation and uptake of non-animal methods, including through increased research investment and the establishment of a UK Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods.