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

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to improve the welfare of farmed animals at the time of slaughter.

The Government encourages the highest standards of animal welfare at slaughter, and legislation sets out the main requirements to protect the welfare of animals when being slaughtered.

Following publication in 2021 of the Post Implementation Review of the Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing (England) Regulations 2015, and as part of the Government’s Action Plan for Animal Welfare, we are considering a number of ways in which the welfare of animals at the time of killing could be further improved. As a first step, last year we introduced The Protection of Animals at the Time of Killing (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2022 which made the non-penetrative captive bolt device available as a killing method for neonate piglets, lambs and kids (within certain parameters), providing an effective method for humane culling on-farm.