Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to (a) reduce and (b) replace the use of dogs in testing required under plant protection product legislation.

The UK Government is committed to maintaining a rigorous regulatory system which ensures that animal research and testing is carried out only where no practicable alternatives exist and under controls which keep suffering to a minimum.

The GB pesticides regulation (assimilated EU Regulation 1107/2009) requires that any testing on vertebrate animals is undertaken only where no other methods are available and that duplication of tests and studies on vertebrates must be avoided. It is an offence to carry out animal tests in contravention of the regulations. The HSE implement and enforce these requirements as the competent authority for the GB pesticide regulations, acting on behalf of the UK and Devolved Governments in Scotland and Wales.