Written question asked by Adrian Ramsay (Green Party) on Thursday, 16 July 2026, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 2 September 2026. It was answered by Sarah Jones (Labour) on Thursday, 10 September 2026 on behalf of the Home Office.

Animal Experiments: Primates

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department's document entitled Annual statistics of scientific procedures on living animals: Great Britain 2025, updated on 9 July 2026, for what reason harms arising from transportation are excluded from severity assessments, including for cynomolgus monkeys born in Africa or Asia used in procedures; and whether she plans to revise the severity assessment framework to include such harms in future.

Answer: Under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, severity assessments measure harms to an animal during a regulated procedure and reflect the highest severity experienced during that procedure, including any cumulative procedural effects. Harms arising from non-procedural events, such as transport and housing, are therefore not within the scope of the severity assessment framework. These matters are instead addressed through separate welfare, transport, licensing and care requirements.

Secondary information