Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 20 April 2018 to Questions 133445, 133447 and 133449, on Ritual Slaughter, when his Department plans to publish the results of the Food Standards Authority survey of slaughterhouses and the Halal market; and whether survey includes the amount of non-stun meat exported from the UK.

The information that we have received from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) suggests that currently 3 out of the 50 poultry plants in England and Wales are using non Annex 1 water bath stunning parameters for religious slaughter.

Defra and the Welsh Government commissioned the FSA to carry out a survey on our behalf on how animals are sourced, slaughtered and then distributed in England and Wales. We hope to publish the results of that survey shortly. Any further reforms in this area will be considered in light of the FSA survey.

Where stunning is carried out, including for religious slaughter, it must be effective in rendering the animal unconscious and insensible to pain and the animal must remain unconscious and insensible to pain until death. Where animals are not stunned correctly the FSA will take appropriate action to prevent animals from suffering. The legislation in England permits religious slaughter to be carried out by a Muslim or Jewish person for the food of Muslim or Jewish people respectively.