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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the closure of small abattoirs on food (a) safety and (b) security.

Ensuring the safety of food that enters the supply chain is of vital importance to the Government. Likewise, the Government considers food security a matter of national security and is committed to maintaining a resilient and diverse food supply chain.

The contribution smaller abattoirs make to the UK food supply chain for meat products in England, is approximately 7% of overall production and 0.3% of throughput. While we have seen the closure of several smaller abattoirs in recent years, this has not impacted national food security or food supply. The national abattoir network remains resilient, continuing to deliver high-quality and safe meat products.

Nonetheless, we recognise that small abattoirs play an important role in supporting regional food systems, providing routes to market for local producers, particularly those rearing native and rare breeds and sustaining diversity in the meat processing sector.

While the Government does not intervene in individual business decisions, it is committed to working with the smaller abattoir sector to help, where possible, mitigate pressures that these abattoirs face.