Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether all sheep meat exported to India under the Government's new agreement announced on 5 December 2018 will be from animals that were stunned before slaughter.
In the Export Health Certificate (EHC) agreed with India there was no mention of stun or non-stun, as is the case with any EHC. However all slaughter of animals for export must strictly comply with EU and UK rules on animal welfare. Any additional requirements, including slaughter methods, is a matter for the importing and exporting parties to agree.
There are many animal health requirements within any EHC, these differ depending on the importing country. It is a document that refers to the origin of the animals that have been slaughtered in approved abattoirs and comply with a number of health requirements, including free from a number of animal diseases. This EHC differs in the respect that the Indian authorities insisted that a long lists of diseases, many of them not notifiable in the UK, be included in the EHC. This requires that owner/farm vet declarations are conveyed to the certifying veterinarian. This is not a straight forward process.
Since the market was opened in December, no exports of sheep meat to India have taken place.