Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department's transparency data entitled Non-technical summaries for project licences granted January – March 2025, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the 2,161,210 animals approved for use across 125 projects.

The Home Office is committed to ensuring that the use of animals in scientific research is strictly regulated and is only permitted where no suitable alternatives are available.

In parallel, the Government is committed to working towards a vision of phasing out the use of animals in science. This Government will publish a strategy that describes how it will accelerate the development and uptake of alternative methods to animal research and testing later this year.

All applications for animal research must conform with all legal requirements set out in the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. This includes, applying the principles of the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction and Refinement); the replacement of animals with alternatives, the reduction of the number of animals used to the minimum possible and the refinement of any techniques to reduce the harm suffered by the animals to the minimum.

The Home Office only allows the use of animals if it can be demonstrated that the benefits outweigh the harms and the 3Rs have been fully applied. This ensures that any project is justified by the expected benefits for humans, animals or the environment.