Mark Pritchard – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Pritchard on 2016-03-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce medical experimentation on live animals in England.
Karen Bradley
The Home Office is responsible for regulating the use of live animals in scientific research under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (ASPA). The principles of Replacement, Reduction and Refinement (the 3Rs) are at the core of project authorisation under this legislation. Furthermore, these principles also extend to breeding, accommodation and care of protected animals.
Animals can only be used where no scientifically satisfactory, non-animal alternative exists which has been suitably validated. The number of animals used must be reduced to the minimum needed to achieve the results sought. For those animals which are used, procedures must be refined as much as possible to cause the minimum pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm.
In addition the Home Office also works with the National Centre for the 3Rs (NC3Rs) who work towards replacing, reducing and refining the use of animals in research. This has included projects such as CRACK IT which to date has invested over £15million with the aims to accelerate the availability of technologies which will deliver i) measurable 3Rs impacts, ii) new marketable products and iii) more efficient business processes.
