PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Slaughterhouses: Animal Welfare (9 March 2016)

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her Department's Single Department Plan: 2015 to 2020, published on 19 February 2016, what discussions she has had with her EU counterparts on reforms to ensure that animals are only sent to slaughterhouses that meet high welfare standards.

Asked by:
Kerry McCarthy (Labour)

I have taken the opportunity to raise the importance of this issue to the UK with my EU counterparts at Agriculture and Fisheries Council discussions on the future direction of EU animal welfare policy last May and in February of this year. The UK’s Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer also did so at the EU CVOs meeting in September last year. We are planning to have a substantive discussion of possible options for delivering this commitment with EU CVOs before the summer.

In the meantime, the Commission is continuing to arrange workshops and training sessions to share good welfare practice on the slaughter of animals with a range of third countries in Europe, Asia, Central and South America; to which we and other Member States contribute veterinary and technical expertise.

Answered by:
George Eustice (Conservative)
14 March 2016