Speeches by Wheeler.

“I beg to move, That this House has considered non-compliance animal testing incidents in laboratories. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Western. The uncomfortable backdrop of today’s debate is that animal experimentation results in legally sanctioned animal suffering. That is the fact that we must kee…”

“I of course agree, and I have some information that will illustrate the point and the importance of inspections. In 2024, just 68 establishments were audited across Great Britain. Only 10 of the inspections were unannounced. That represents just 15% of inspections, which is down from 63% of inspections in 2018. The iss…”

“I think it will come as no surprise to my hon. Friend that I do agree with him, and I will be making that very call. We are in a good place when it comes to the development of alternatives. I therefore welcome the publication of the Government’s “Replacing animals in science” strategy in November.”

“Of course. It will surprise my hon. Friend not at all that I agree. I will come to the wider context and wider solutions, but at this time, although we can look to improve the situation, we must absolutely look to make sure that current regulations are enforced as we speak, and not let slide, because there have been hu…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for another valuable intervention. I agree with her. The Government’s strategy contains a range of positive measures, such as increasing funding for human-specific technologies, but we can move faster—more, we have an opportunity to grow the strategy by supporting cutting-edge, world-leading new …”

“I want to dig a little deeper on that and separate the different types of arm’s length bodies and regulators. I appreciate that this will not have been done, but how easy or difficult would it be to define the different types of bodies and put them into buckets that might or might not be answerable, if we were to go do…”

“I am not asking that.”

“Do you think that all the decisions that attract ministerial responsibility, including those of arm’s length bodies or regulators, should be exempt from the sub judice resolution so that they can be discussed in Parliament without parliamentarians falling foul of the resolution?”

“In that case, do you have a rough idea of what proportion of those—more than the 15 that led to an investigation—fall into each of those categories? Just so that we can consider and assess whether, as I asked, if there is more that we, the House, or that you need to do. If we are talking about a small number with that …”

“Maybe we could step away from the standing orders. That is never a good idea, I appreciate, but it is for the context of the conversation, and moving away from the beginning point. I accept that the advice was not to fill gaps, but to move to the end point, and how they are used. I think that you have indicated that, a…”

“You have stated that your office received 2,955 written allegations and inquiries in the year 2024-25, but that resulted in 15 code of conduct inquiries. What can the House, and you and your office, do to address the public misperception of what your office is for?”

“I wonder whether the hon. Member accepts that, as a number of colleagues have drawn to the House’s attention, the current system has a perverse incentive that pushes people towards a more complicated tribunal system that seeks to identify discrimination, rather than a simpler system of unfair dismissal, because of the …”

“Recently, there have been several instances where the House has had to be suspended because statements have not been delivered to Parliament in good time. As the House’s representative in Government, what actions are you taking to ensure that your ministerial colleagues are providing information to Parliament in a time…”

“You mentioned working on the next Session. Can you provide us with any more certainty on the timings for the present Session of Parliament, following the announcement by your predecessor in September that the present Session would continue into spring 2026?”

“Will the hon. Lady give way?”

“I am perplexed and confused by what I am hearing. Does the hon. Member appreciate that by moving the goalposts once again, and delaying this crucial Bill once again, she is leaving an open goal for unscrupulous employers?”

“Can you tell us a little about your experience of the sub judice resolution in the House of Lords?”

“You might have already hinted at your answer to this question. Do you believe that the two Houses should remain aligned in terms of their application, or should the elected House have more scope in some way to discuss urgent and emerging issues?”

“You mentioned the role the Speaker plays in the Commons, in terms of Members receiving a waiver. What is the process in the House of Lords for securing a sub judice waiver?”

“Can you tell us a little about your experience of the sub judice resolution in the House of Lords?”