Parliamentary debate on animal experiments

Responsible department: Home Office

In 2010 the UK used over 3.6 million animals in experiments; a 25-year high. We believe this should be subject to Parliamentary debate, since a great deal of public money is spent on animal experiments and it is an issue the public are extremely concerned about. This coming year is a crucial one for animal experiments as the Government is currently considering its approach to three key aspects of the issue: transposition of Directive 2010/63/EU (the revised EU Directive on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes); the Government’s pledge to reduce the use of animals in scientific research (set out in the Coalition’s ‘Programme for Government’, May 2010); and the Government’s position on a possible delay to the 2013 deadline for the EU marketing ban on animal tested cosmetics. We believe a debate in Parliament on these issues would be an excellent way to ensure the Government is aware of the opinions of MPs on this very important subject.