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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on the number of animals slaughtered without prior stunning in the UK of the UK's recent agreement with Saudi Arabia to lift the ban on lamb exports to that country.

The agreement with Saudi Arabia lifted restrictions on exports which were a legacy of the BSE outbreak in the 1990s. The agreement was not specific to stun or non-stun slaughter. Moreover, a significant proportion of halal meat produced in the UK is stunned before slaughter. Since the market with Saudi Arabia has been opened, no exports of sheep meat to Saudi Arabia have taken place.