Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to investigate the reasons for the number of covid-19 outbreaks in abattoirs and other meat processing facilities.

Public Health England (PHE) local health protection teams respond to notifications of suspected outbreaks in meat processing plants (including abattoirs) by undertaking a risk assessment, providing public health advice, including on infection prevention and control and social distancing measures, and advising on the testing of employees. In doing so, an assessment is made as to whether transmission may be occurring in or outside the workplace.

An enhanced outbreak investigation protocol has been developed which will allow PHE to further understand the factors relating to infection transmission in meat-related food production and abattoir settings to ascertain potential routes of transmission: within the workplace through a more detailed understanding of the workforce, the working environment and working practices; staff and environmental biological sampling; factors outside the workplace, such as transport arrangements, housing, employment conditions.