Parliamentary Written Question - Why?
Update 29 October 2025 - the question has been tabled. See this article for the full update.
Shortly after submitting the complaint to the ICO on 18th August 2025, dissatisfied about the Home Office’s Freedom of Information (FOI) and Internal Review (IR) responses, I believe it was time to create parallel pressure at Parliament. A Parliamentary Written Question (PWQ) would be the perfect compliment.
11 years of Parliamentary Written Questions
Since the consultation on Revising Section 24 of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 closed on June 2014, MPs have been asking Parliament when the outcome will be published.
In total 11 MPs have asked a Parliamentary Written Question.
The initial answers were promising, including statements that said “draft proposals are with other Government departments for consideration”[1]. But after the government changed in May 2015, every answer from each government were along the lines of ‘in due course’.
The Good and The Bad
11 years is a long time for nothing to happen, but continued pressure at Parliament meant this issue wasn’t being forgotten. Finally in August 2022, the then Minister included an item on "clarifying Section 24 of ASPA”[2] in their Ministerial Commission to the Animals in Science Committee.
Why Now?
This is 2 folds.
First: absence of Parliamentary pressure. The last time a PWQ on the 2014 Consultation was October 2023[3]; that is almost 2 years with no mention of this issue.
Second: new Freedom of Information case. On May 2025, I submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Home Office, asking for the report from the 2014 Consultation. As of August 2025, this case is now with the ICO as I am dissatisfied with the Home Office’s responses to both my FOI and IR.
Ask your MP to table a Written Question to Parliament
“
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Answer of 19 October 2023 to Question 202528, on what date the policy work to clarify Section 24 of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (a) commenced, (b) was paused and (c) resumed; and if he will make a statement.
