The number of procedures conducted each year at each severity level is reported in the annual statistics on scientific procedures. The 2026 data will be collected in early 2027 and published as national statistics that year. The latest published statistics show that 17,593 experimental scientific procedures involving living animals were assessed as having an actual severity of severe in Great Britain in 2025. This is in the context of a total of 1.3 million experimental procedures.

Project licences granted under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 in 2026, to date, have authorised the use of a maximum of approximately 321,200 animals in protocols with a maximum severity classification of severe. This represents less than 8% of the maximum number of animals authorised across all severity classifications.

This figure represents the maximum numbers authorised across project licences and does not necessarily reflect the numbers that will actually be used. In project licence applications, applicants are required to specify the highest severity that an animal could experience under each protocol and estimate the proportion of animals likely to experience that level of severity. Consequently, the number of animals authorised for use in protocols with a maximum severity classification of severe is not equivalent to the number expected to experience severe effects.

This figure also does not account for the continued use or re-use of animals across a project. Taken together, these factors mean that it is likely to overestimate the number of individual animals expected to be used under a licence.