The Medical Research Council (MRC) provides clear principles on how researchers should interact with human and no human subjects in research. Other important documents or information sources which are important for those working with human subjects are The Human Rights Act (1998), The Helsinki Declaration, and the World Medical Association.

The ethical principles underpinning research involving animals applied by the MRC follow from the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act, 1986 and provide an example of the sorts of guidance generally found in the UK:

1. The MRC supports only scientific studies that are well designed and likely to provide new information on important questions relevant to human health.
2. All experimental programmes supported by MRC must avoid using animals wherever possible. The researcher must give sound scientific reasons for their use, and explain why there are no realistic alternatives.
3. Animal experiments must use the simplest possible, or least sentient, species of animal.
4. The MRC expects researchers who use animals to consider the ethical issues associated with: keeping animals in captivity; killing animals; causing animals distress or pain.
5. Experiments should use the smallest number of animals that can clearly answer the question posed, and take every practical step to avoid distress or suffering.
6. All staff involved in animal research, and in the breeding, housing and care of animals, must be properly trained and supervised.
7. By law, all research must be scrutinised by a local ethical review process and by the Home Office Inspectorate before work begins. In addition, the MRC's scientific committees have a responsibility to scrutinise scientific plans for animal experiments to ensure they are worthy of support.
8. The MRC actively supports the development and dissemination of techniques that reduce, refine, or replace animal experiments.
9. Researchers collaborating with laboratories in other countries must ensure that standards there are consistent with standards in the UK.

Extract from Medical Research Council position statement on research regulation and ethics (2005)