Home Secretary (): I can inform the House
that the Government is taking action to seek alternatives to
animal testing for worker and environmental safety of chemicals
used exclusively as cosmetic ingredients. We are therefore
announcing a licensing ban with immediate effect.
The Government is committed to replacing animals used in science
wherever scientifically possible and is confident that the UK
science sector and industry has the talent to provide the
solutions.
The cosmetic regulations require manufacturers to demonstrate
that their products are safe for use by consumers. Animal testing
for consumer safety of cosmetics and their ingredients was banned
in the UK in 1998. This ban remains in force.
Under chemicals regulations (the Registration, Evaluation,
Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals regime, or REACH),
chemicals manufacturers and importers must demonstrate the
hazards to human health and the environment of the chemicals they
place on the market. This includes chemicals used as ingredients
in cosmetics. In some cases, where there are no validated
alternatives, this has in the past required testing on animals as
a last resort.
The REACH regime is separate from, and has a different purpose
to, the consumer cosmetics regulations, which is why it has been
possible that a chemical used in cosmetics production may be
required to be tested on animals. This has been reflected in the
issuing of a small number of time-limited licences between 2019
and 2022. The Government recognises the public concern around the
testing on animals of chemicals used as ingredients in cosmetics,
and the new opportunities available to us to depart from the EU
testing regime.
I can confirm, therefore, that from today no new licences will be
granted for animal testing of chemicals that are exclusively
intended to be used as ingredients in cosmetics products.
The Government is also engaging with the relevant companies to
urgently determine a way forward on these legacy licences.
In addition, the Government is undertaking work to review at pace
the effective administration of the ban over the longer term
(including the legal framework for this). This would also have
due regard of the needs of the science industry, the need to
ensure worker and environmental safety, and the need to protect
animals from unnecessary harm.
Modern alternatives mean there are opportunities to design
non-animal testing strategies for these chemicals so that worker
and environmental safety is unlikely to be compromised, and
potentially enhanced. In this way, working with industry, the
Government is seeking to improve safety by the application of new
non-animal science and technology.
