Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what procedures the Food Standards Agency has in place to monitor and ensure compliance with Schedule 1, Part 5, paragraph 28 (f) of the Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing (England) Regulations 2015.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) Official Veterinarians and Meat Hygiene Inspectors carry out general monitoring activities that include checks and verification of the welfare of animals.

Welfare verification activities carried out by the FSA team on site cover all processes involving live animals, including verification of the business operator’s own checks to ensure efficiency of stunning. These in situ verification checks take place at different intervals throughout the production day.

Post-mortem inspection of every bird destined for human consumption is carried under the supervision of the official veterinarian; post-mortem findings may indicate welfare may have been compromised during slaughter and related operations; findings are recorded and investigated when identified. Post-mortem inspection will generally not provide any evidence of consciousness following stunning if the required procedures were followed and the affected birds were stunned or killed without delay once the stunning was identified as inefficient.