HC Deb 11 February 1997 vol 290 c126W
Mr. Nigel Griffiths

To ask the President of the Board of Trade what is Her Majesty's Government's policy on the proposed EU ban on the use of animals in cosmetic testing. [14779]

Mr. John M. Taylor

The Commission has announced that it will be bringing forward proposals for a draft Council directive to ban the testing of finished cosmetic products on animals from 1 January 1998, but with certain dispensations for exceptional cases. United Kingdom toxicological advisers see no justification for dispensations and we intend therefore to press, in the negotiations, for a total ban on finished product testing.