The debate around animal testing has been rife in 2023. On the one hand, it's been good news. Earlier this year, the UK Government announced that no new licenses will be issued for animal testing for cosmetics. This was a dramatic U-turn after it secretly abandoned a 25-year ban in 2019 and had allowed the testing on animals to resume in order to be in line with EU chemicals rules.
However, there is a lot more work to be done. Cruelty Free International (CFI) has revealed that the new ban only applies to ingredients used exclusively in cosmetics – meaning this is only a partial ban as it applies to about 20% of all chemicals used in cosmetics.
As a result, the CFI is campaigning that the 1998 blanket ban on animal testing for cosmetics is put into law – a pledge in support of this legislation can be signed here.
This is even more important now, as the European Court ruled this week that German cosmetics manufacturer Symrise AG must conduct animal testing on two previously-approved ingredients used exclusively in sunscreens – homosalate and 2-ethylhexyl salicylate.
This move effectively renders the European Union and United Kingdom bans on animal testing for cosmetics virtually meaningless. The toxicity testing required will also involve over 5,500 animals, including rats, rabbits and fish, being force-fed the ingredients before being killed and dissected.
Earlier this year, PETA UK revealed that over 400 chemicals are registered in the EU as ingredients used exclusively in cosmetics, and some of these are subject to new animal testing requests.
Is cosmetic animal testing legal in the UK?
Most people believe that animals are no longer tested on for cosmetics in the UK. In theory they should be right, as in 1998 the then-Labour government officially banned the testing of cosmetic products and ingredients on animals.
Unofficially, however, this hasn't been the case since Brexit. Under the current UK Government, only a partial ban on animal testing is in place as it doesn't address “substances used exclusively or predominantly as cosmetic product ingredients,” which the original legislation from 1998 covered.
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A timeline of animal testing in the UK
The UK Government announced a policy ban to end the use of animal testing for finished cosmetic products and ingredients.
A letter from the Home Office to animal welfare charity Cruelty Free International (CFI) revealed that the Tory government once again allowed animal testing on ingredients exclusively used in cosmetics. This move effectively overturned the cosmetics testing ban that had been in place for 25 years.
From 11 March 2013, the EU has banned the sale of animal-tested cosmetics. However, a decision by the European Chemicals Agency’s (ECHA) Board of Appeal now requirex certain ingredients to be tested on animals before they are used by humans.
UK officials revealed that our rules would be aligned with The ECHA's, which stated that Symrise, a German chemicals firm, should carry out animal tests on two ingredients widely used across a range of beauty products to satisfy chemicals regulations.
This effectively overrules EU restrictions on animal testing of cosmetic ingredients.
“Under UK regulations to protect the environment and the safety of workers, animal testing can be permitted, where required by UK regulators, on single or multi-use ingredients. However, such testing can only be conducted where there are no non-animal alternatives,” a government spokesperson said.
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At the time, Dr Katy Taylor, CFI’s director of science and regulatory affairs, said: "The government is saying that even ingredients used solely in cosmetics, and with a history of safe use, can be subjected to animal tests in the UK.
"This decision blows a hole in the UK’s longstanding leadership of no animal testing for cosmetics and makes a mockery of the country’s quest to be at the cutting edge of research and innovation, relying once again on cruel and unjustifiable tests that date back over half a century."
According to Dr Julia Fentem, Unilever's head of the safety and environmental assurance centre, there are approximately 100 cosmetics-only ingredients that could be subjected to animal testing under the regulations. She called the UK's plan to align with the Symrise decision a “retrograde step”.
After more than 80 companies – including Unilever, The Body Shop, Avon, Boots, Waitrose and the Co-op – joined the CFI in writing to the Home Office, the High Court granted the CFI permission to apply for a judicial review against the Home Office's decision to abandon the ban.
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A judicial review is essentially a type of court proceeding in which a judge reviews the lawfulness of a decision or action made by a public body. In this case, it is looking at whether the way in which the Home Office made their decision is actually legal.
The judicial review was granted on two grounds. Firstly, whether the change to the Government’s policy should be allowed.
Secondly, whether the harm-benefit test was being applied correctly. This test is required under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 and is the process of assessing whether the harm that would be caused to protected animals in terms of suffering, pain and distress is justified by the expected outcome, taking into account ethical considerations and the expected benefit to human beings, animals or the environment.
Director of government and regulatory affairs at CFI, Kerry Postlewhite said: “This judicial review is vital to establish whether there is a ban on cosmetics testing on animals in the UK…The Government seems to be telling the public one thing – that cosmetics animal testing is banned in the UK - and doing something entirely different in practice."
The two-day hearing for the judicial review of the Home Office’s policy on animal testing concluded.
Documents disclosed in the court proceedings revealed that the Home Office secretly abandoned the ban in 2019. A High Court Judge ruled that the ban can be reinstated, despite the Home Office arguing against it.
In the Judicial Review, Mr Justice Linden agreed with the Home Office’s interpretation of the legislation – hence the Government's actions weren't deemed unlawful. But he said that did not stop the UK having a policy prohibiting cosmetics testing on animals.
Now that the High Court has said it can, Cruelty Free International will be calling on the Government to immediately reinstate the 1998 on animal testing.
In response to the ruling, Chris Davis, The Body Shop Global Director of Activism and Sustainability, said: “The Body Shop was the first global beauty company to campaign to ban animal testing in cosmetics in 1989, with the UK becoming the world’s first to rule it out in 1998.
“We share the deep-rooted concerns of our long-standing partner Cruelty Free International that the ban was effectively lifted in 2019, under the radar.Following today’s high court ruling we also call on the Government to reinstate the ban immediately. We can’t turn back the clock.”
In a written statement to Parliament, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the UK ban on animal testing for ingredients used ‘exclusively’ in cosmetics will be reinstated. In a statement to Parliament, she wrote: “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."
However, ingredients used ‘exclusively’ in cosmetics amount to only about 20% of the total number of chemicals used in cosmetics. "The previous ban, confirmed by the government in 2015, also covered ‘substances used exclusively or predominantly as cosmetic product ingredients',” Cruelty Free International said in a statement.
Animal rights campaigners are calling for a blanket ban on animal testing for cosmetics in the UK.
