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 3 September 2014 to Question 193828, what steps she has taken to ensure the accuracy of data collected by the Food Standards Agency on mis-stunning of animals for slaughter.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is due to complete a review into its monitoring and reporting of breaches of welfare legislation by the end of October.

Previously, only major and critical breaches were recorded, along with the actions taken to correct these. The FSA review is now also looking to strengthen recording of minor breaches. These minor breaches include where back-up stunning equipment is used or a second stun is carried out without the intervention of the Official Veterinarian and where there has been no injury, avoidable pain, distress or suffering to an animal. As with major and critical breaches, information on minor breaches would be collated centrally and reported to Defra, Welsh and Scottish Government on a monthly basis.