Written question asked by Adrian Sanders (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 15 December 2014, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 17 December 2014. It was answered by Baroness Featherstone (Liberal Democrat) on Thursday, 18 December 2014 on behalf of the Home Office.

Animal Experiments

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Answer of 28 March 2011 to Question 45398, whether it remains the policy of her Department that a ban on the testing of household products on animals will apply to both finished products and ingredients; whether there is now a definition of household products; and when the ban will be implemented.

Answer: We have made a commitment to ban the testing of household products on animals. Although superficially straightforward, this issue has not been easy to resolve. The key issue is around ingredients. We are currently engaging with
stakeholders to develop a solution that is workable, but does not have a chain of unforeseen circumstances.

Any solution has to be legally viable since we cannot ban testing which may be required under UK or EU law. The solution we develop must not preclude research that is a lawful requirement nor that which has significant benefits to people, the environment or animals. Nor should it drive research overseas.

There is, at present, no authoritative definition of household products in the United Kingdom or European legislation. Through stakeholder engagement we are seeking to develop an agreed definition.

Secondary information