Voters should be able to see where the money's flowing

It's great to be writing the next update of my Westminster diary, and I hope everyone reading had a happy Easter.

- Irene Campbell MP

It continues to be busy at Westminster and constituents contact me on a range of matters. Animal welfare is one such area.

Recently, some constituents contacted me to ask for me to meet with Lord Vallance, who is the Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation, and to speak about the need to phase out testing on animals.

In my role as the chair of a parliamentary group on this topic, I had the opportunity to speak to the Minister and speak to him about the potential for a shift in funding to move to more modern groundbreaking methods which are more relevant to the human body.

As a member of the Petitions Committee, I was also able to present a debate on the topic of stopping medical testing on dogs.

A poll found that only 14 per cent of the UK public think it is acceptable to test on dogs. I was proud to be able to present the arguments on behalf of the petitioner and the almost 235,000 people who had signed the petition.