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

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many small and medium-sized abattoirs were in operation in the UK in each year from 2001 to 2017.

For each year between 2001 and 2017 the number of small and medium sized abattoirs fell. The data provided only covers Great Britain which account for the majority of abattoirs.

Abattoir numbers by size in Great Britain

Source: Food Standards Agency

The data was sourced from the Food Standards Agency. The number of abattoirs in Scotland and Northern Ireland are held by Food Standards Scotland and the Food Standards Agency Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland do not hold data prior to 2008 so the figures provided are just for Great Britain.