Dan Jarvis corrected a written answer on Animal Experiments: Dogs

24 April 2025 · Commons written answer · Home Office

Ruth Jones (Labour, Newport West and Islwyn) asked written question 45836 on 17 April 2025. Dan Jarvis answered on 24 April 2025 for the Home Office, and Dan Jarvis corrected the answer on 24 April 2025. The corrected text adds the figure 7.3, which the original did not give. Altogether 237 words differ between the two versions.

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to Table 7.3 : Experimental procedures by species of animal: regulatory use by origin of legislative requirement, Great Britain 2014 to 2023 of her Department’s Statistics of scientific procedures on living animals, Great Britain: 2023, published on 11 September 2024, which UK legislative requirements were intended to be satisfied by the 12 procedures carried out on beagles.

Original and corrected answer

Struck through: original only. Bold: correction only.

Original	Corrected
~~The Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) with~~ the ~~Home Office and Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs involvement is leading~~ on ~~a strategy~~ to ~~accelerate~~ the ~~development, validation and uptake~~ of alternatives to animal testing which is scheduled for publication later this year. Pharmaceutical legislation requires that, before a medicine can be approved for testing in humans, it is tested in a rodent and non-rodent species under international guidelines. This may include dogs as an appropriate model. The majority of Beagles bred for use in science (85%) are for the purposes of regulatory testing under legislation on pharmaceutical products for human use. The number of Beagles bred is largely determined by the forecast needs of the pharmaceutical industry that require testing of medicines. The Home Office regulator ensures compliance of all work licensed with the rigorous requirements of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act. The number of animals used in scientific research and testing, including Beagles, is published annually at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/animals-in-science-regulation-unit#statistics . The Home Office assures that, in every research proposal, animals are replaced with non-animal alternatives wherever possible, the number of animals are reduced to the minimum necessary to achieve the result sought, and that, for those animals which must be used, procedures are refined as much as possible to minimise their suffering.	With reference to the Annual Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals in Great Britain 2023, Table 7.3, the 12 procedures carried out on beagles were to satisfy legislative requirements on the testing of medicinal products for human use.

Original

Corrected

~~The Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) with~~ the ~~Home Office and Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs involvement is leading~~ on ~~a strategy~~ to ~~accelerate~~ the ~~development, validation and uptake~~ of alternatives to animal testing which is scheduled for publication later this year.
Pharmaceutical legislation requires that, before a medicine can be approved for testing in humans, it is tested in a rodent and non-rodent species under international guidelines. This may include dogs as an appropriate model. The majority of Beagles bred for use in science (85%) are for the purposes of regulatory testing under legislation on pharmaceutical products for human use. The number of Beagles bred is largely determined by the forecast needs of the pharmaceutical industry that require testing of medicines.
The Home Office regulator ensures compliance of all work licensed with the rigorous requirements of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act. The number of animals used in scientific research and testing, including Beagles, is published annually at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/animals-in-science-regulation-unit#statistics .
The Home Office assures that, in every research proposal, animals are replaced with non-animal alternatives wherever possible, the number of animals are reduced to the minimum necessary to achieve the result sought, and that, for those animals which must be used, procedures are refined as much as possible to minimise their suffering.

With reference to the Annual Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals in Great Britain 2023, Table 7.3, the 12 procedures carried out on beagles were to satisfy legislative requirements on the testing of medicinal products for human use.

The question and answer on the Parliament website.

Receipt

Read from	https://questions-statements-api.parliament.uk/api/writtenquestions/questions/1794321?expandMember=true
Date read	15 October 2026
SHA-256	`81eb7de73332f90eba24c9accdcca0de0cbaf25d8a9227476d9e1f05440da62d`