To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the number of animal deaths, broken down by species, which will be averted by the voluntary ban on final product cosmetic testing on animals. [17885]
The "Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals, Great Britain, 1996" were laid in the House in July. Table 10 shows that 252 procedures were for the purpose of safety testing of finished cosmetic products, the category of tests covered by the voluntary ban. Table 10a shows that these involved 220 animals (34 rats, 162 guinea-pigs and 24 rabbits). Most of these animals would only have experienced low levels of suffering and would not have died as a result of the procedure.The ban on cosmetic product testing is an important first step. We announced on 6 November that we would also be exploring a ban on the testing of ingredients for "vanity" products and finished household products.